Faculty

Director, Professor
jw.peters@wsu.edu
(509) 335-3412
Plant Sciences Building 101E Pullman

• Functional and structural examinations of enzymatic reduction processes, including nitrogenase, hydrogenase, and acetone carboxylase;
• structural and mechanistic features of electron bifurcation;
• influence of soil microbial communities on nitrogen fixation affecting crop growth

Associate Professor
laura.bartley@wsu.edu
Plant Sciences Building 273 Pullman

• Synthesis and Regulation of Grass Cell Walls
• Genetics & Genomics of Switchgrass and Other Grasses for Biofuels and Carbon Storage
• Cell Wall Remodeling During Lateral Root Formation

Associate Professor
phil_bates@wsu.edu
(509) 335-0553
Plant Sciences Building 243 Pullman

• Membrane and storage lipid biochemistry and metabolism;
• lipid metabolic flux, radioisotopic tracers;
• engineering plant oils for increased nutrition or chemical feedstocks and biofuels

Charlotte Y. Martin Distinguished Professor & Regents Professor
jab@wsu.edu
(509) 335-2293
Plant Sciences Building 241 Pullman

• Lipid and membrane biochemistry;
• pathways and regulation of lipid synthesis and membrane formation in higher plants;
• jasmonate hormone;
• chilling and freezing tolerance in plants

John R. Cort

WSU-PNNL Joint Appointment
Research Associate Professor
john.cort@pnnl.gov
(509) 371-6334
PNNL, MSIN: K8-98

• Biomolecular NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry;
• biopolymer structure, dynamics, and function;
• structural Bioinformatics;
• metabolomics

Professor & Director of the Tissue Imaging and Proteomics Laboratory
gangd@wsu.edu
(509) 335-0550
Plant Sciences Building 111B Pullman

• Evolution of metabolism;
• medicinal plants, such as ginger, turmeric, Huperziaceae and Lamiaceae;
• development of rhizomes;
• application of omics tools (metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics) to investigate the structure, regulation and control of metabolism in individual cell types such as trichomes and specialized organs such as plant rhizomes;
• application of imaging mass spectrometry in agricultural and biomedical research

Assistant Research Professor
hwangs@wsu.edu
(509) 335-1090
Plant Sciences Building 353 Pullman

• Plant genome editing;
• metabolic engineering of starch for enhanced plant productivity and yields;
• subcellular mRNA localization in higher plants

Professor
kahn@wsu.edu
(509) 335-8327
Plant Sciences Building 343 Pullman

• Interaction between plant and bacterial metabolism to support symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes;
• plant and bacterial differentiation during root nodule formation;
• signaling and resistance mechanisms operating during the initiation of root nodule formation;
• advanced methods in bacterial genetics

Associate Professor & Phenomics Center Coordinator
kirchhh@wsu.edu
(509) 335-3304
Plant Sciences Building 283 Pullman

• Architecture of photosynthetic membranes;
• structure-function relationships on the whole membrane, mesoscopic and molecular levels;
• dynamics of the photosynthetic apparatus in response to environmental changes;
• protein repair and regulation of electron transport and light harvesting

Professor & Co-Director of the M.J. Murdock Metabolomics Laboratory Service Center
lange-m@wsu.edu
(509) 335-3794
Plant Sciences Building 373 Pullman

• Biosynthesis of natural products in medicinal and aromatic plants;
• enzyme structure-function relationships in terpenoid biosynthesis;
• development of tools and databases for plant metabolomics

Arthur M. and Kate Eisig-Tode Distinguished Professor & Regents Professor
lewisn@wsu.edu
(509) 335-2682
Clark 467, Pullman

• Functional characterization of dirigent proteins, and determination of their biochemical diversity in planta;
• biochemistry of natural and medicinal products in plants;
• biochemistry of vascular plant lignified cell walls;
• biochemistry of formation of unique plant constituents in individual cell types;
• effect of gravity on metabolic pathways in plants;
• integrated omics and phenylpropanoid biochemical pathway evolution

WSU-PNNL Joint Appointment
Research Professor
mary.lipton@pnnl.gov
(509) 372-XXXX
PNNL, MSIN:  K8-98

• Proteomics;
• microbially mediated bioenergy production, bioremediation, and carbon sequestration

Florence Mus

Assistant Research Professor
florence.mus@wsu.edu
(509) 335-1093
Clark 427A, Pullman

• Genetic determinants of nitrogen fixation: nitrogen fixation specific gene regulation, ammonium assimilation, oxygen protection mechanisms, electron transfer and redox homeostasis;
• enzymatic CO₂ fixation/carboxylation mechanisms: functional and structural examinations of acetone carboxylase enzymes;
• enzymology of the biosynthesis of CoM in bacteria

Regents Professor
okita@wsu.edu
(509) 335-3391
Plant Sciences Building 361 Pullman

• Biochemistry of starch synthesis and protein localization;
• metabolic genetic engineering of plants for increased productivity;
• mRNA localization and the role of the cytoskeleton and endoplasmic reticulum

Simone Raugei

WSU-PNNL Joint Appointment
Research Professor
simone.raugei@pnnl.gov
(509) 372-6902
PNNL, MSIN:  K1-83

• Energy transduction in enzymes;
• Biophysics;
• Catalysis;
• Physical Chemistry

Associate Professor
sanja@wsu.edu
(509) 335-3008
Plant Sciences Building 381 Pullman

• Folate metabolism and its relationship to photosynthesis and photorespiration;
• flavin biosynthesis and pathway regulation, role of flavins in symbiotic interactions

Associate Professor
andrei.smertenko@wsu.edu
(509) 335-5795
Plant Sciences Building 281 Pullman

• Development of novel technologies for phenotyping drought tolerance in crops;
• genetics of cambium proliferation and secondary growth;
• molecular mechanisms of cytokinesis;
• regulation of microtubule dynamics

Assistant Research Professor
narayanan.srividya@wsu.edu
(509) 335-XXXX
Plant Sciences Building 111A Pullman

• Structure-function analysis of terpene synthases
• Biochemistry of terpenoid functionalization enzymes
• Determinants of specificity in acyl activating enzymes

Assistant Research Professor
li.tian@wsu.edu
(509)335-1047
Plant Sciences Building 353 Pullman

• Molecular mechanism of mRNA localization in plant cells;
• roles of RNA-binding proteins in mRNA localization and transport;
• gene regulation network during plant seed development and stress response