Institute DIrector

Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee

Director – Plant Resilience Institute, Michigan State University
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Plant Biology, and Plant, Soil, and Microbes, Michigan State University

Theme 1: Surviving the Solid State

Thomas boothby, theme lead

Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, University of Wyoming

Shahar sukenik, project lead

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Syracuse University
Project: Is glass strength associated with protective capacity?

Marisa otegui, project lead

Professor of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Project: How do cellular structures change during dehydration to solid-state?

Theme 2: Rehydration and Recovery

Hugo TAPIA, Theme Lead

Assistant Professor of Biology, California State University Channel Islands
Project: How does partial re-hydration affect desiccation tolerance?

Theme 3: Molecular Engineering

Alex HOLEHOUSE, theme lead & project lead

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University in St. Louis
Project: Rational design of de novo proteins for desiccation tolerance in cells and organisms

Steven BOEYNAEMS, project lead

Assistant Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine
Investigator at Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children’s Hospital
Project: Molecular rules of membraneless organelle water responsiveness

Theme 4: Evolutionary Dynamics

Robert VANBUREN, theme lead & project lead

Assistant Professor of Horticulture, Michigan State University
Project: Identify conserved and lineage-specific molecular responses to anhydrobiosis

Moises EXPOSITO-ALONSO, project lead

Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology, University of California Berkeley
Freeman Hrabowski Scholar, Howard Hugues Medical Institutes (HHMI)
Project: Identify genetic determinants underlying desiccation tolerance by mining natural variation in seed germination across A. thaliana populations

Rose MARKS, project lead

Assistant Professor of Plant Biology, University of Illinois
Project: Developing the resurrection grass Microchloa caffra as a new system for evolutionary genetics of desiccation tolerance