Stanford University
Showing 21-40 of 130 Results
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Christopher M. Dundas
Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSoil can have an enormous impact on climate change mitigation, as atmospheric CO2 is captured and stored in large quantities by soil organic matter. Plants mediate carbon sequestration by transferring aboveground photosynthesis products to belowground roots. This carbon is stabilized into soil pools by root growth/biomass turnover, exudation of organic compounds, and metabolization by soil microbes. Crops bioengineered to increase soil carbon input could boost net CO2 capture and improve agricultural productivity (e.g., via elevated water and nutrient availability). However, genetic engineering targets that control carbon exchange from roots to soil remain poorly defined. Since carbon distribution within plants is controlled by sugar metabolization and transport, genes that alter these processes may also regulate carbon input to root-proximal soil (i.e., the rhizosphere). At Stanford, Christopher will study how these genes affect soil carbon input by Setaria viridis, a model energy grass that is a promising sustainable fuel source. Leveraging high throughput root imaging technology and genetic circuit design, he will construct root-associating bacterial strains and transgenic Setaria that allow researchers to measure/modulate sugar flux from root systems. These living sensors/actuators will be used to determine genetic design rules of soil carbon input at the root-rhizosphere interface. Results will inform engineering of biofertilizer bacteria and functional plant genes that can increase carbon release into soils by other food- and energy-relevant crops.
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Michelle María Early Capistrán
Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology
Postdoctoral Scholar, OceansBioMichelle María Early Capistrán is a David H. Smith Conservation Fellow at the Crowder Lab. Her transdisciplinary research focuses on working collaboratively with coastal communities to improve conservation practice by integrating Local Ecological Knowledge and marine ecology. She was originally trained as a Cultural Anthropologist and holds an M.S. and PhD in Marine Science and Limnology (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM). For over a decade, she has collaborated with rural fishing communities in the Baja California peninsula to understand long-term changes in the abundance of endangered and culturally important green turtles (Chelonia mydas). She will work with Prof. Crowder, in collaboration with Jeff Seminoff of the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, to develop species distribution model for green turtles under climate change by integrating Local Ecological Knowledge and Citizen/Community Science.
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Laurent Formery
Postdoctoral Scholar, Hopkins Marine Station
BioI graduated from Sorbonne University (France) in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and I started my PhD at the Villefranche-sur-Mer marine station, where my research focused on the develoment and evolution of the nervous system in sea urchins, and on the roles of intercellular signaling pathways in this process. As part of my PhD, I spent one year at the Shimoda Marine Research Center (Japan). I am now trying to understand how morphological diversity emerged from gene regulatory networks, using echinoderms and other cool animals like accorn worms. I am broadly fascinated by developmental biology, evolution, and zoological studies of weird animals in general.
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Collin Gross
Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology
BioI am an ecologist primarily interested in patterns and processes of biodiversity and community assembly. I am curious about the functional, historical, and evolutionary processes that act to bring species together in space and allow them to coexist. My past work has largely examined these questions in seagrass systems, focusing on assemblages at the scale of meters to multiple continental coastlines. In the Daru Lab, I plan to leverage large sets of organismal distribution data to answer questions about how functional traits and species interactions shape regional biotas, and develop tools to visualize and analyze these assemblages in space.
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Wendy Herbst
Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology
BioNeuroscience Postdoc in Kang Shen Lab, Department of Biology