Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2018-2019
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Biology, Colorado State University
Research Summary: Iron (Fe) deficiency anemia is the most widespread nutrient deficiency worldwide. One reason for this is that crop plants are also commonly Fe deficient because soil Fe is poorly available. If we can understand how plants regulate their Fe when deficient, we can eventually pinpoint specific pathways and proteins to engineer crops with a higher nutritional value. I study the leaf Fe deficiency response at the molecular level to determine which genes and proteins are being sacrificed during Fe deficiency. During Fe deficiency, photosynthesis related proteins are sacrificed, and I am now investigating the mechanisms that lead to this prioritization.