Jeff Dangl has been named as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in basic plant research.

Dr. Jeff Dangl has been tagged by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF) as one of the nation’s most innovative plant scientists. As a newly minted HHMI-GBMF investigator, Jeff and the 14 other recipients will receive support that gives them the freedom to “be able to move their research in creative new directions”. The HHMI-GBMF recognizes that basic plant research has been underfunded. It is investing 75 million dollars over the next 5 years in new plant research in an effort to push forward research that addresses questions such as:

• How can photosynthesis be made more efficient?
• How can plants be efficiently propagated without seeds?
• What mechanisms do plants use to sense temperature and day length and how do they use that information to decide when to flower?
• How do plants control the form and function of their root systems?
• What makes certain bacteria able to induce disease in plants?
• How do plants recognize beneficial versus pathogenic microbes?
• How do hormones control a plant’s life cycle – from embryo to senescence?

Dr. Dangl’s lab focuses on research in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which is used as a model to study the interactions that take place during infections by phytopathogenic bacteria and fungus. Congratulations again on being named a HHMI-GBMF Investigator!

For more information on the goals of this new HHMI-GBMF initiative click here.