My work is focused on the taxonomy of the neotropical family Malpighiaceae, currently on the genera Mezia and Hiraea.

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My research interests are in plant systematics, including floristics, molecular phylogenetics, phytogeography, and bioinformatics. My work has mainly focused on the Neotropics, particularly the Guayana Shield, the Andes, and Brazil, as well as the upper midwestern United States. Plant groups of special interest are Euphorbiaceae (Euphorbia and Croton), Fuchsia (Onagraceae), and Rapateaceae. I am particularly interested in the study of "giant genera," those that are considered to contain over 500 species and have often been avoided because of their complex taxonomy, geography, and large numbers.

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The research in our lab follows a fascination with climbing plants. Lianas, vines, and scramblers all use other plants (or structures) as their structural support. Climbers are found in more than 100 angiosperm plant families, rivaling the diversity of trees, shrubs, and herbs, and yet, they climb their hosts and modify organs and tissues in myriad ways. Biodiversity is at the heart of our research because of the broad phylogenetic representation among climbers. We are especially focused on the woody, persistent climbers, or lianas, that are common in tropical forests of the western hemisphere. In addition, our research compares the well-known tropical forest biodiversity with temperate forest diversity of climbing plants, especially in the mesic eastern forests of the United States.

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Bill Currie studies how physical, chemical, and ecological processes work together in the functioning of ecosystems such as forests and wetlands. He studies how human impacts and management alter key ecosystem responses including nutrient retention, carbon storage, plant species interactions, and plant productivity. Dr. Currie uses computer models of ecosystems, including models in which he leads the development team, to explore ecosystem function across the spectrum from wildland to heavily human-impacted systems. He often works in collaborative groups where a model is used to provide synthesis. He is committed to the idea that researchers must work together across traditional fields to address the complex environmental and sustainability issues of the 21st century. He collaborates with field ecologists, geographers, remote sensing scientists, hydrologists, and land management professionals.

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Bob Grese serves as Director of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. His teaching and research involve ecologically-based landscape design and management that respects the cultural and natural history of a region. Grese is particularly interested in the restoration and ongoing management of urban wilds and the role such lands can play in re-connecting children and families with nature. He has long been fascinated by the work of early designers such as Jens Jensen and Ossian Cole Simonds who borrowed from the native landscape in their work, as there is much to be learned about their designs and their fate over time. He has a growing interest in green roofs and other low impact design strategies.

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Our major research interests focus on the current challenges that plant communities are facing in the context of global change, i.e. climate change, invasive species, and landscape fragmentation. These challenges are interconnected as they form the novel environment under which plants are growing. The fact that forest communities are highly dependent on recruitment dynamics makes the study of early demographic stages critical for understanding the impact of global change on the natural ecosystems around us. To isolate these phenomena, we have directed our research at the recruitment of dominant tree species, from seed production to the sapling stage, including seed dispersal, germination, establishment and survival during the first years. This line of research covers a gap on the study of vegetation response to global change, where most work done has been on the basis of correlative approaches, e.g., climate envelopes. By focusing on the actual demographic responses of plant species to a changing environment, results from our work will be essential to forecast reliable vegetation changes under future climate scenarios.

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Andrew Jones is a public health nutritionist, interested in understanding the influence of agriculture and food systems on the nutritional status of women and children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). His research examines: i) how agricultural and landscape biodiversity influence diet quality and food security among smallholder farming households in LMICs; ii) the role of livestock value chains in contributing to anemia among women and children through diet, infection, and environmental exposures; iii) how food systems changes associated with the “nutrition transition” in LMICs potentiate the risk of concurrent undernutrition and obesity, and the impacts of urbanicity and household food security in mediating these dynamics; and iv) the implications for food systems of aligning dietary recommendations with goals for environmental sustainability.

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Both animals and plants use steroids as signaling molecules to regulate a variety of growth and developmental processes, however, their signaling mechanisms are quite different. While animal steroids are mainly recognized by intracellular steroid receptors that provide a fast track for the chemical signals to move into the nucleus for controlling gene activities, plants steroids are perceived by a transmembrane receptor kinase that initiates a phosphorylation-mediated signal transduction pathway. For the last several years, my lab, along with several other plant steroid research groups, has identified several key regulators of the plant steroid signaling using Arabidopsis as our genetic model system.

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Dr. Michener's research focuses on peony domestication, genomics, and cultural history, as well as rematriation of culturally linked heritage plants and plant conservation.

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Proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm must be targeted to their proper subcellular location and transported across the appropriate organellar membrane boundaries. Dr. Olsen's research focuses on the assembly of peroxisomes, which are small organelles present in all eukaryotes.

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Yin-Long Qiu is a plant evolutionary biologist specializing in the study of evolution of land plants. He and his lab have engaged in the following areas of research over the last 20 years: reconstructing the early land plant and basal angiosperm phylogenies, investigating mitochondrial genome evolution in early land plants, and studying the origin and evolution of genetic mechanisms underlying evolution of characters that confer adaptive advantages to plants during several major evolutionary niche transitions, such as plant-mycorrhizal fungus symbiosis.

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A fundamental feature of development in multicellular organisms is the specification and patterning of distinct cell types. Our lab studies the formation of the hair and non-hair cell types in the root epidermis of Arabidopsis thaliana as an elegant and powerful model system for uncovering the mechanisms of cell specification.

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My group studies the paleobiology of plants, including their evolution and their link to climate and environment on broad timescales. We use both modern and fossil plants, and a variety of tools including phytoliths, stable isotopes, X-ray tomography, and anatomy to address questions relating to systematics, evolution, ecology, and the Earth-Life system.

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Drug discovery and nanomedicine for cancer therapy: The Sun Lab's research focuses on drug discovery and nanomedicine for cancer therapeutics. Specifically, they are currently working on: (A) Natural Products to eliminate cancer stem cells; (B) Drug discovery targeting epigenetics and cancer stem cell targets, (C) Nanomedicine for targeted drug delivery and cancer therapy; (D) ADME and pharmacokinetics for lead compound optimization, and (E) Drug release in GI tract for modified release (MR) drug products.

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