BDI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Director / Professor
Ana Paula Alonso, PhD. obtained her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D in Biological and Medical Sciences from the Université Victor Segalen in Bordeaux, France. After four years of postdoctoral training in seed metabolism (Michigan State University), and microbial metabolism (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Toulouse, France), she joined the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center in 2008 as a Visiting Assistant Professor to work in the exciting field of biofuel research. In 2010, Dr. Alonso accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at The Ohio State University where she was the Director of the Targeted Metabolomics Laboratory; she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016. Dr. Alonso joined the BioDiscovery Institute at the University of North Texas in 2018 and most recently appointed Associate Director of the BioDiscovery Institute; she is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the director of the BioAnalytical Facility.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Addressing global challenges related to food and energy security
Improving seed and plant metabolism
Developing alternative crops for biofuel and industrial applications
Understanding plant-microbe interactions
Deciphering the metabolism of human fungal pathogen
Approaches: Mass Spectrometry-based Metabolomics and 13C-based Metabolic Flux Analysis (aka fluxomics)
Job Titles:
- Member of the ORNL Neutron Scattering Science Review Committee
- Research Scientist II
Antonella Longo, Ph.D., obtained her B.S. in Biology from the University of Tor Vergata in Rome and her Master's and Ph.D. in Biophysics from the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy. Post-doctoral studies brought her to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and to the NIEHS in the Research Triangle Park. Subsequently, she held a joint faculty position between the Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry at NCSU, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 2012, she joined the Department of Biological Sciences at UNT as research assistant professor. She is currently a Research Scientist II.
Dr. Longo has been a member of the ORNL Neutron Scattering Science Review Committee since 2011. She also served in the SHUG (SNS and HFIR User Group) executive committee (2010-2014). She serves in the UNT COS Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Council.
Dr. Longo has successfully used x-ray crystallography to determine the structure of several proteins including human transcription factors in complex with their target DNA and a yeast intron-encoded maturase. Since joining UNT, she has expanded her interests to study nitrate and iron transporters in plants, algae, and diatoms using structural modeling and in planta and heterologous systems for functional studies.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Structural evolution of nitrate transporters in plants and diatoms
Structural and functional studies of iron transporters in plants
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist I / Lecturer
Brian Ayre has a B.Sc. in Genetics, Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, postdoctoral experiences at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, and Cornell University, and has conducted sabbaticals at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology and the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia. At UNT, his research revolves around the phloem transport system and how it functions as a whole-plant communication network to enable disparate organs to function as an integrated, complete organism.
Research in Dr. Ayre's lab revolves around the phloem transport system of plants and how it functions as a whole-plant communication network to enable disparate organs to function as an integrated complete organism. Within this broad context, there are projects in two main areas: 1) The role of the phloem in coordinating carbon metabolism and nutrient utilization between photosynthetic source leaves and heterotrophic sink organs and 2) the role of the phloem in transporting signaling molecules from leaves to growing tissues to mediate source control of sink growth and development. Together, these trajectories contribute to our understanding of how plants control yield, biomass partitioning, and growth patterns on a whole-plant level. The Ayre lab approaches their questions with modern tools in biochemistry, molecular biology and plant biotechnology, but always retain sight of the whole organism in our answers.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
We study how manipulation of sucrose transporters and metabolic engineering of mobile sugars can contribute to carbon partitioning throughout the plant and potentially enhance productivity.
We are interested in how altered biomass partitioning can lead to increased levels of bio-products.
We study growth regulating genes in vascular cambia and apical meristems to understand and manipulate developmental patterns important to crop value.
We use virus-based technologies to efficiently study genes that contribute to architectural patterns of vegetative, reproductive (i.e., fruiting) and branching growth in agricultural crops.
C. Dursun, N. Shimoyama, M. Shimoyama, M. Schläppi, and S. Bozdag, PhenoGeneRanker: A Tool for Gene Prioritization Using Complete Multiplex Heterogeneous Networks, In Proceedings of the 10th ACM International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Health Informatics (ACM-BCB) (pp. 279-288). New York, NY, USA, 2019.
Job Titles:
- Head of Bio - Analytical Facility, Research Scientist I
Clement Chan participated in academic research since he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After accomplished his B.S. degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry, he joined a Ph.D. program in Biological Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and conducted his thesis research in the laboratory of Peter C. Dedon, M.D., Ph.D. at the Department of Biological Engineering. As a graduate student, Dr. Chan used a quantitative systems approach to study biological roles of tRNA modifications in cellular response to different types of stress. With Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism, he developed a mass spectrometric platform to quantify tRNA modifications, which led to the discovery of specific changes in the quantitative pattern of tRNA modification spectrum in response to different types of stress.
During his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of James J. Collins, Ph.D. at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Chan continued to conduct systems biology research while using transcriptomics and proteomics analyses to understand the bacterial response to antibiotics. Additionally, he also developed his research in synthetic biology, including using protein engineering methods to construct a series of biosensors for the detection of different small molecules and harnessing these biosensors to build a programmable "Passcode" genetic circuit to control cellular behaviors in response to multiple environmental signals. After he became a faculty, he continues to use these systems and synthetic biology approaches to understand and construct biological systems. Clement Chan Lab
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Protein Engineering
Cellular Engineering
Genetic Sensing Systems
Design of Genetic Circuit
Biological Monitoring Device
Biocontainment of Engineered Organisms
Quantitative Systems Biology
Job Titles:
- Lab Facilities and Purchasing Manager
- Laboratory Facility Manager / Purchasing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Natural Plant Protection, Head, NAM - UPL NA, Inc
Dr. Brian Meckes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Texas. His research group focuses on the application and development of nanopatterning for controlling cell behavior and nanoparticles for therapeutic delivery. Dr. Meckes holds a B.S. in Bioengineering from Rice University and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, where he was a recipient of an NIH Ruth Kirschstein Predoctoral F31 Fellowship. Dr. Meckes completed his postdoctoral training at Northwestern University where he was an International Institute for Nanotechnology and the Eden and Steven Romick Postdoctoral Fellow. Recently, he has been recognized with a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities. His current research projects are supported by the NIGMS and USDA.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Meckes' lab focuses on applying lithographic approaches to control cellular interactions and the development of nanotherapeutics to regulate pathological functions.
Dr. Calvin A. Henard received a B.S. in Molecular Biology from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado where he studied the role of the nutrient starvation stringent response in Salmonella's ability to co-opt and subvert host immune responses. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Henard was an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral trainee at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas where he evaluated virulence mechanisms of the intracellular protozoan parasite Leishmania. In 2014, Dr. Henard joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Bioenergy Center as a postdoctoral researcher, where he was promoted to a full-time staff researcher in the applied biology group in 2016. At NREL, Dr. Henard used his expertise in molecular microbiology and metabolic engineering to develop algal, yeast, and bacterial biocatalysts for conversion of renewable substrates to biofuels and bioproducts. In 2019, Dr. Henard joined the Department of Biological Sciences and the BioDiscovery Institute at the University of North Texas (UNT). Dr. Henard's lab at UNT leverages advanced molecular and synthetic biology to develop biotechnologies for the conversion of C1 substrates to fuels and chemicals using methanotrophic bacteria.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Single Carbon (C1) Biocatalysis
Genetic tool development
Metabolic engineering
Protein engineering
Recombineering
Metabolic flux analysis
Fermentation optimization
Metabolomics
Methylotroph physiology and metabolism
Bacterial transcriptional regulation
Redox signaling
Job Titles:
- Chapman Lab Manager
- Reserach Scientist I / Lab Manager
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor - Materials Science & Engineering
Dr. Diana Berman received her Ph.D. degree in Physics from North Carolina State University in 2012. After graduating, she worked as a PostDoctoral Researcher in Argonne National Laboratory, at the Center for Nanoscale Materials. In 2016, she joined the University of North Texas as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on understanding fundamental aspects of friction, wear, and lubrication of materials with a larger vision of how this knowledge can be applied in practice. She has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 2 book chapters. She also holds more than 10 patents (both US and International). Among her awards are TechConnect Innovation Awards, Ralph E Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Early Career Award, UNT Early Career Professorship Award, UNT Research and Innovation Award, and NSF Early Career Award.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Friction
Wear
Lubrication
Nanostructured materials
Sensing devices
A. Shirani, J. Lee, D. Berman*: "Thermal stability and gas absorption characteristics of ionic liquid-based solid polymer electrolytes", J Chem Phys 154, 054902 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0037978 .
J. Lee, V. Hasannaeimi, T. W. Scharf, D. Berman*: "Mechanical and chemical robustness of the aluminum oxide-infiltrated block copolymer films and the resulting aluminum oxide coatings", Surf Coat Technol 399, 126204 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2020.126204 .
Dr. Serdar Bozdag received his BS degree in Computer Engineering at Marmara University and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at the University of California, Riverside. Prior to joining Marquette University, Dr. Bozdag was a postdoctoral fellow in National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. In 2012, he joined Marquette University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science. In 2015, he received the Way Klingler Young Scholar Award. In 2019, he received the NIH's prestigious Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA), a 5-year single-PI research grant. In 2020, he joined UNT as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Department of Mathematics with an affiliation with the BioDiscovery Institute. Dr. Bozdag has served as a Program Committee member in several bioinformatics conferences including ISMB, ACM-BCB, RECOMB/ISCB Conference on Regulatory & Systems Genomics and the Great Lakes Bioinformatics Conference. He is an editorial board member of PLOS ONE and Cancer Informatics journals. Dr. Bozdag's research goal is to develop open source integrative computational tools to analyze high dimensional biological, clinical and environmental exposure datasets to infer context-specific gene regulatory interactions and modules, and to predict disease associated genes and patient-specific drug response.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Developing machine learning and network science methods to integrate multi-omics data
Inferring gene regulatory interactions and modules
Prioritization of disease- and trait-specific genes
Precision medicine
Elizabeth Skellam obtained her MChem in Chemistry from the University of Wales Swansea, UK. She then moved to the University of Bristol, UK, and received a PhD in Chemistry after studying natural products biosynthesis in fungi, focused on how multifunctional enzymes synthesize complex metabolites using simple building blocks. Following her doctoral studies Dr. Skellam received a MARBIONC Business of Biotechnology fellowship and moved to the University of North Carolina Wilmington as a Visiting Research Assistant Professor in 2011. There she was involved in genome mining and metabolic engineering of marine actinobacteria and cyanobacteria. In parallel she earned a second Master's degree, in Business Administration (MBA), directly related to the commercialization of natural products' research. In 2014 she moved to Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, accepting a permanent appointment in 2015, and began to build her independent research profile. Dr. Skellam joined Department of Chemistry and the BioDiscovery at UNT in Fall 2020. Her lab focuses on natural product biosynthetic pathway elucidation and engineering to generate and develop novel biocatalysts and bioactive molecules with potential use for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food, and cosmetic industries.
Job Titles:
- Scientific Lab Technician
Gail has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology/Chemistry and almost twenty years of plant biotechnology experience. She came to UNT from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in 2013 with Dr. Richard Dixon and served as his Lab/Greenhouse Manager, which she has since expanded the scope of to include all of BDI.
As Greenhouse Manager for the BioDiscovery Institute, she maintains the greenhouses allocated to BDI and coordinates necessary services and repairs. Her position includes assisting with USDA-APHIS permit applications, pest management, and plant maintenance and sanitation as well as pesticide applications for which she holds a Private Pesticide Applicator's License.
In addition to working as Greenhouse manager, Gail has participated in the following publications:
Shadle, G., Wesley, S.V., Korth, K. L., Chen, F., Lamb, C., and Dixon, R.A. (2003). Phenylpropanoid compounds and disease resistance in transgenic tobacco with altered expression of L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase. Phytochemistry 64, 153-161.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Senior Research Fellow, - Chemical Engineering National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Founder, Chairman Emeritus and Board Member, Metabolon, Inc
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Executive Director, Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation University of North Texas
Job Titles:
- Chairman - Department of Biological Science, Distinguished Research Professor
Jyoti Shah, PhD. completed a B.Sc. degree in microbiology and biochemistry (1983) and his M.Sc. degree in microbiology (1985) from the University of Bombay (India). After two years conducting research in an industrial setting at Hindustan Lever Ltd in Bombay, he traveled to South Bend, Indiana where he earned a Ph.D. degree (1991) in biology at the University of Notre Dame under the supervision of Mary J. Clancy for his work on genetic factors regulating meiosis and sporulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After completion of his doctoral degree, Shah joined Daniel Klessig's group as a postdoctoral fellow to study plant defense signaling at the Waksman Institute (Rutgers University) in Piscataway, NJ. In 1998, he accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at Kansas State University where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor. In 2007, Shah was recruited by the University of North Texas, where he rose to the rank of Professor and was subsequently honored with the title of University Distinguished Research Professor. Over the past 20 years, Shah has developed an internationally acclaimed program in the area of plant defense signaling and the role of lipids in stress response. His lab pioneered work on developing tools to develop a model system for studying plant defense against aphids. In addition, his group discovered a novel signaling role for the diterpenoid dehydroabietinal in plant defense and the transition to reproductive development. Shah has applied these discoveries to develop strategies for enhancing resistance in wheat to the Fusarium head blight disease. He has also contributed to more than 100 publications that have over 8000 citations. Shah's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture and the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Plant-pathogen interactions: Plant defense against pathogens; signaling mechanisms in plant defense; Secondary metabolites in plant defense signaling as well as susceptibility to diseases.
Plant-insect interaction: Plant response to phloem feeding insects; physiological changes in plants during aphid infestation; Signaling mechanisms contributing to resistance as well as susceptibility to insect infestation.
Plant Lipids: Involvement of lipids and lipid oxidation in plant stress response.
Applied interests: Engineering disease resistance in agronomically important plants against important diseases, e.g. Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat.
Chowdhury, Z., Mohanty, D., Giri, M.K., Venables, B.J., Chaturvedi, R., Chao, A., Petros, R.A., Shah, J. (2020) Dehydrobabietinal promotes flowering time and plant defense via the autonomous pathway genes FLOWERING LOCUS D, FVE, and RELATIVE OF EARLY FLOWERING 6. Journal of Experimental Botany. 71:4903-4913. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa232.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, Biochemistry
Ken Keegstra, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Michigan State University - East Lansing. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Job Titles:
- Director, Regents Professor
Kent Chapman earned a B.A. degree in biology in 1986 from Lycoming College, and a Ph.D. degree in botany from Arizona State University. After completing his doctoral degree, Chapman was awarded an NSF postdoctoral fellowship to study plant biochemistry at Louisiana State University. In 1993, he accepted a position as a tenure-track, Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas (UNT). During the last 29 years, Chapman has developed an internationally-recognized research program in plant biochemistry and cell biology, specifically in the area of plant lipid metabolism. The Chapman lab has contributed more than 170 publications to the primary literature, and provided new ideas about the evolutionary conservation of lipid metabolism, storage and function in eukaryotes. Chapman proposed and chaired the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Plant Lipids in 2009 (with John Ohlrogge), which is now a permanent, standing GRC. Chapman received the first Research Leadership Award at UNT for National and International Scientific Achievement in Research, and in 2010 was appointed Regents Professor of Biochemistry. In 2014-15, he served a rotating term as Program Director at the US National Science Foundation. Chapman is Executive Editor for the journal, Progress in Lipid Research, and reviewing editor for The Plant Cell. Chapman was awarded the Terry Galliard Medal in 2020 by the International Plant Lipid Symposium for contributions in plant lipid biochemistry. In 2021, he and was named Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists in recognition of distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology and service to the Society. Chapman currently serves as Director of the UNT BioDiscovery Institute.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Lipid signaling in plants.
Biogenesis of lipid droplets in plant cells.
Plant lipids for human health and industrial applications.
Lipidomics in tissues and organelles.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean
- Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies
Dr. Hughes is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Science and an associate professor of biology at the University of North Texas (UNT). He has a bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in Biology, and a doctorate in Microbiology, all from UNT. He conducts both microbiology and science education research. Dr. Hughes focuses on early research experiences for biology majors and serves as director for UNT's Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (PHAGES) program, an affiliate of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science Education Alliance. His research laboratory focuses on the isolation of novel bacterial viruses, known as bacteriophages, that infect the genus Streptomyces.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Chairman Department of Chemistry University of North Texas
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Dean, College of Business University of North Texas
Job Titles:
- Budget Analyst
- Research Analyst / Budgets
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientific Officer
- Member of the Advisory Board
Mauricio Antunes, Ph.D. received his B.S. degree in Agronomy and M.S. degree in Crop Sciences from the Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Brazil. He then moved to West Lafayette, Indiana, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in Plant Molecular Biology at Purdue University, under the supervision of Nick Carpita and Tom Hodges. After completing his doctoral degree, Antunes joined June Medford's group at Colorado State University as a postdoctoral fellow, where he was involved in pioneering work in plant synthetic biology to rationally engineer plants to function as sensitive and specific sensors of substances of interest to humans. After spending one year working in Maureen McCann's lab at the Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels (C3Bio) at Purdue University, Antunes returned to Colorado State University in 2010 as a Research Assistant Professor in the Biology Department. In 2018, Dr. Antunes joined the Department of Biological Sciences and the BioDiscovery Institute at UNT. Research in Dr. Antunes' lab centers on the development and application of tools from the emerging field of synthetic biology to engineer plants with novel traits that function in a predictable and tunable manner to result in improved bioproduction.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Development of synthetic transcriptional and post-transcriptional control systems whose behavior can be modulated by specific inputs.
Small RNAs as mobile signaling molecules in plants.
Engineering complex synthetic genetic circuits to improve plant production and biosynthesis.
Re-wiring metabolic pathways in plants using gene regulatory controls.
Ferreira, S.S.; Antunes, M.S. (2021) Re-engineering plant phenylpropanoid metabolism with the aid of synthetic biosensors. Frontiers in Plant Science 12:701385. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.701385.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
Job Titles:
- Scientific Lab Technician
Patrick Horn, Ph.D., received his B.S. degree in Biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin in 2008. He then earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2013 at UNT, under the supervision of Dr. Kent Chapman, completing his dissertation entitled "Development of Enabling Technologies to Visualize the Plant Lipidome." As a postdoctoral research associate, he worked with both Dr. John Ohlrogge and Dr. Christoph Benning at Michigan State University. In 2018, he joined the Dept of Biology faculty at East Carolina University where he started his own research lab. His past research has led to several significant discoveries, across multiple hierarchical scales, for example revealing the spatial distribution of lipids in plant tissues, new lipid droplet-associated proteins with novel metabolic and developmental functions, mechanistic insights into the metabolism and regulation of lipid metabolism in seeds and vegetative tissues, improvements in engineering high-value oils, and insights into photosynthetic membrane remodeling and stress responses. In 2022, Dr. Horn joined the Dept of Biological Sciences and the BioDiscovery Institute at UNT. Dr. Horn's lab at UNT will center on the identification and characterization of proteins involved in bioproduct metabolism with an emphasis on plant lipid pathways. Acquired knowledge from these projects will be used in translational efforts to crop systems with an emphasis on understanding the impacts of dynamic environmental conditions on bioproduct metabolism.
Current Research Interests
Horn, PJ (2021). Where Do the Electrons Go? How numerous redox processes drive phytochemical diversity. Phytochemistry Reviews, 20, 367-407.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Global Trait Business Partner Manager - Sunflower, Cereals, Lentils BASF Corporation
Rajeev Azad, PhD. has research interests in the area of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, particularly developing and applying mathematical and statistical tools to decipher structural and functional features in genomes and elucidate their relationships in the context of evolution. He has developed novel computational methodologies for gene discovery, alien gene identification and genome comparison. Many of these methods and algorithms are based on probabilistic models that provide a rigorous theoretical framework for studying nucleotide ordering patterns within genomes and have proved powerful tools for biological sequence analysis. He has extensive training and experiences in computational genomics and transcriptomics, including differential gene regulation and genome evolution.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Microbial genome plasticity: Evolution of bacterial virulence and drug resistance
Differential gene regulation: Whole transcriptome profiling and analysis
Assessment of statistical methods for genome sequence analysis
Gene / Gene family discovery; Gene network analysis
Sex chromosome evolution
Rebecca Dickstein, PhD. has long standing research interests in symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) in legumes with extensive experience in the model legume Medicago truncatula. Dr. Dickstein uses genetic approaches to study how the rhizobial symbiont infects host plant roots and what processes are essential in the latter stages of SNF. This work recently led the identification of several, as-yet unpublished, crucial putative transporters. It also led to the serendipitous discovery that expressing a specific transporter in plants leads to plants with enhanced growth. Dr. Dickstein has expertise in genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and biotechnology. In addition to research, Dr. Dickstein teaches the large, cross-listed undergraduate and graduate course Biochemistry I: Macromolecular Structure and Function each fall. During spring semesters, Dr. Dickstein teaches a graduate course alternating between Advanced Molecular Biology, Signal Transduction and Biochemical Regulation and a Topics course in SNF. Dr. Dickstein was promoted to Professor in 2007, having started at the University of North Texas in 2000 as an Associate Professor with tenure. She was at Drexel University as Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor from 1990-2000. She holds a BS in Biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University and a PhD in Biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University. Her long-standing interest in SNF in legumes dates from when she was a PhD student investigating the expression of bacterial genes in eukaryotic organisms. She has actively participated in SNF research since her Post-doc work at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University from 1985 to 1989.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Symbiotic nitrogen fixation.
Biological transporters.
Nitrogen use and assimilation.
Rhizobial infection of legume roots.
Salehin, M., Huang, Y.-S., Bagchi, R., Sherrier, D.J. and Dickstein, R. (2013). Allelic differences in Medicago truncatula NIP/LATD mutants correlate with their encoded proteins' transport activities in planta. Plant Signal. & Behavior 8:1-5.
Libault, M. and Dickstein, R. (2014). Advances in functional genomics research in legumes. In Legumes in the 'Omic Era, Springer New York (Gupta, S., Nadarajan, N., Gupta, D.S. eds.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus
Richard A. Dixon, FRS. was founding Director of the BioDiscovery Institute, and is currently Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of North Texas, Denton. He was previously Distinguished Professor and Samuel Roberts Noble Research Chair, Senior Vice President and Founding Director of the Plant Biology Division at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma, where he worked from 1988-2013. He received his Bachelor's and Doctoral degrees in Biochemistry and Botany from the University of Oxford, UK, and postdoctoral training in Plant Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, UK. He was awarded the Doctor of Science degree for his research achievements by the University of Oxford in 2004. His research interests center on the biochemistry, molecular biology and metabolic engineering of plant natural product pathways and their implications for agriculture and human health, and the engineering of lignocellulosic biomass for the improvement of forages and feedstocks for the bioeconomy. He has published over 530 papers and chapters on these and related topics in international journals, that have been cited over 94,000 times. His current h-index is 147, and Google Scholar lists his research impact as #3 in the world in the field of Plant Biology. Professor Dixon is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences (Plant and Soil Sciences Section, elected in 2007), a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (elected in 2018), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (elected in 2003), a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (elected in 2014), and a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists (elected in 2018). He has been named by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the 10 most cited authors in the plant and animal sciences.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Biochemistry and genetic regulation of plant natural product biosynthetic pathways
Metabolic engineering of lignin and condensed tannins for improvement of forage quality and biomass processing
Valorization of lignin through genetic modification
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Barnett Rosenberg Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Plant Biology Michigan State University - East Lansing
Job Titles:
- Research Associate Professor
Roisin McGarry has a BSc from the University of Lethbridge, Canada, MSc from the University of Alberta, Canada, and PhD from Cornell University. Her doctoral research was awarded a national scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She conducted post-doctoral research at the University of North Texas, and was a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Germany, and the University of Georgia. McGarry's research in plant development is focused on architecture regulation with the goal of enhancing crop productivity.
S. Bozdag, A. Li, S. Wuchty, H. A. Fine, FastMEDUSA: A parallelized tool to infer gene regulatory networks, Bioinformatics, 2010, 26(14): 1792-1793.
Job Titles:
- Admin
- Administrative Coordinator
- Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Research Director Lipotech USA ( Division of Lubrizol )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Professor and Founding Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering University of North Texas
Job Titles:
- Scientific Lab Technician
Job Titles:
- Research Associate Professor
Xiaoqiang Wang, PhD. is Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Structural Biology from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China in 1993. He worked as a research associate at the University of Manchester (UK, 1995-1996), and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (1996-1999). He was a research fellow in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1999 to 2002. He was an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and head of the structural biology laboratory in the Plant Biology Division, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation from 2002 to 2014. His research interests include protein structure and design and engineering, plant natural products and biosynthesis, and enzyme-mediated drug metabolism and detoxification. He was awarded a federal grant by the National Science Foundation to study structure and function of glycosyltransferases involved in plant natural product biosynthesis, and was the first to solve the structure of a plant family I UDP-glycosyltransferase. He also obtained two NIH grants to engineer UGT71G1 for metabolizing an anticancer drug SN-38A. His research is providing a basis for understanding enzymatic mechanisms and biosynthetic processes towards manipulation of enzymes and biosynthetic pathways for improvement of plant, animal and human health. He has published original research articles in prestigious journals including Cell, Science, Molecular Cell, Plant Cell, Nature Structural Biology, and Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS
Plant natural products and biosynthesis
Enzyme structure and mechanism
Enzyme design and engineering
Enzyme-mediated drug metabolism and detoxification
Aziz, N., Wang, X.*, Tripathi, A., Bankaitis, V., Chapman, K.D.* (2019) Structural analysis of a plant fatty acid amide hydrolase provides insights into the evolutionary diversity of bioactive acylethanolamides. Journal of Biological Chemistry 294, 7419-7432. (*Corresponding authors)