Faculty

David Block's research lies in the application of his training as a chemical engineer to winemaking practices. Research projects in his lab include investigating the fundamental basis of alcohol tolerance in yeast so that this tolerance can be increased in otherwise desirable production strains, and optimizing wine processing to achieve processing goals (like mouthfeel and color).

Ron Runnebaum's research program aims to combine his interests in sustainable winemaking with his research background in nanomaterials, adsorption, heterogeneous catalysis, and reaction engineering. Winemaking-related projects include developing materials to capture CO2 and volatile organic compounds, especially from fermentation, and developing fundamental understanding for the production of chemicals from winery waste streams. 

Grey Monroe studies the causes and consequences of climate adaptation in plants, using the principle that a mechanistic understanding of climate adaptation lies in multidisciplinary syntheses connecting genomes, traits, and environments.  By connecting functional genomic diversity with plant traits and the climate components that drive their evolution, he seeks to address classic questions in evolutionary biology and the challenges of climate stress in agriculture.

Philipp Zerbe seeks to illuminate the genetic and biochemical features that contribute to the vast natural variation of plant secondary metabolism, and translate this knowledge into innovative biotechnology applications to meet the needs of society for a source of bioproducts.

Li Tian's research lies in phytonutrient biochemistry and physiology; Biosynthesis, accumulation and function of carotenoids and polyphenols in plants; Targeted improvement of crop phytonutrient composition and content for enhanced nutritional and medicinal values.

Steve Theg and his students seeks to understand the events surrounding the transport of proteins across biological membranes and their assembly into larger multimeric complexes. Most of the laboratory's efforts focus on protein trafficking and assembly in chloroplasts isolated from higher plants (often peas, but also Arabidopsis and N. benthamiana).

Research in the Runcie lab focuses on genetic variation and plasticity. Runcie and his students try to identify molecular pathways underlying phenotypic differences among genotypes, particularly differences in how each genotype reacts to dynamic environments. They seek to improve predictions of crop performance, learn about forces that shape the evolutionary histories of natural populations, and identify critical systems that limit plant responses to climate change. Research tools include statistics, quantitative genetics, gene network and ecophysiological models, bioinformatics, and lab experiments. 

Jeff Ross-Ibarra uses maize and its wild relatives to study the genetic basis of adaptation, genome evolution, and experimental evolution.

Daniel Potter studies angiosperm systematics, i.e., phylogeny and classification and of flowering plants. Students in his lab seek to document diversity and investigate diversification in flowering plants, especially horticultural crop plants and their wild relatives. They use phylogenetic analyses of molecular and morphological data, as well as phylogeographic and population genetic approaches, to address taxonomic and evolutionary questions, including human effects on plant evolution through processes such as cultivation, domestication, and dispersal to new areas. A related area of emphasis is ethnobotany, i.e., the study of plant-people interactions, including direct human uses, management, and perceptions of culturally significant plants.

Nitin Nitin uses a combination of interdisciplinary approaches encompassing biomolecular engineering, mathematical modeling, material science and molecular imaging to study two main areas: (a) Food Engineering, with a goal to develop technologies for addressing key issues in areas of food safety and food for health initiatives (e.g. development and validation of non-thermal food processing operations for food safety; engineering of food formulations to improve bioavailability of nutraceuticals).  (b) Biological/Biomedical Engineering Research: The goal of this research is to develop molecular imaging technologies from a single cell level to a whole body imaging.