Each spring, the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology hosts an ice cream social to come together and celebrate the accomplishments of our community, give recognition to award-winners, and bid fond farewells to graduating students and others departing for their next adventures.
‘The Scoop’ From the Department Head
We had a lovely time celebrating The Department of Plant & Microbial Biology at our annual Ice Cream Social Event in April. At this event, we highlighted some of the many successes that our department has worked very hard to achieve over the past year, introduced new members, and caught up with colleagues. In this spring newsletter, we highlight those awards and share updates on departmental research, teaching, and more.
On May 4th, we celebrated PMB Spring Graduates at our graduation ceremony. We graduated twenty-two Bachelor of Science students from the Plant Biology undergraduate program, fourteen from the Master of Microbial Biotechnology Program, and two Doctoral level degrees from the Plant Biology Graduate program. I want to congratulate our students who graduated this spring. We are excited to see what the future holds for you and hope that you stay in touch!
Additionally, I encourage you all to connect with the PMB Department on LinkedIn to stay up to date with our endeavors and help us build our professional network for our students.
I hope you all have a wonderful summer break and I look forward to seeing what the fall semester brings the department.
-Bob Franks, Department Head
Plant Biology Undergraduate Student Awards and Recognition
At the end of each academic year, the Undergraduate Program Committee gives awards to recognize exceptional graduating seniors and continuing students. Please click on the names of the awards to learn more about the awards and the recipients.
Awards for Graduating Seniors
- Outstanding Academic Achievement in Plant Biology: Thomas Morgan
- Outstanding Plant Biology Major: Chloe Roberts
Awards for Continuing Students
- Larry A. Whitford Award: Zoe Curtis
- W. Scott and Mary Dell Chilton Undergraduate Research Award: Hannah Davis and Catherine Laufenberg
- Rachel Edwards: Upstream Stimulatory Factor Impact on B-cell DNA Damage and cellular stress Major: Microbiology, Mentor: Dr. Michael Sikes.
- Daniel Richard: Investigating Roles of UDP-Glucose in Hyaluronic Acid Production in Fructose Treated Immortalized Kupffer Cells Major: Biochemistry, Mentor: Dr. Arion Kennedy.
- Emily Sontag: Molecular and Cultivation Assays of Human-Associated Methanogens Major: Genetics, Mentor: Dr. Zhe Lyu.
Recognition
Botany Club
The mission of the undergraduate Botany Club at NC State is to promote interactions among NC State students who are interested in the fundamental science of plants as well as to promote scholarship in and an open discussion of all things botanical. The Plant Biology Undergraduate Program recognizes the enthusiasm, commitment, and hard work of this year’s Botany Club Officer Team:
- President – Jackson Cooper (fall) and Zoe Curtis (spring)
- Vice President – Jake Thompson
- Secretary/Treasurer – Zoe Curtis (fall) and Giuliana Mendoza (spring)
- Agri-Life Council Representatives: Shriya Reddy, Giuliana Mendoza (fall) and Caitlyn Elliott
(spring)
The 2024-2025 Botany Club Officers are:
- President – Zoe Curtis
- Vice President – Jake Thompson
- Secretary/Treasurer – Shriya Reddy
- Agri-Life Council Representatives: Giuliana Mendoza and Caitlyn Elliott
Graduate Student Awards
Plant Biology
- Martha Sue Sebastian Award: Aurora Toennisson
- Susan R. Vitello Award: Bethany Mostert
Plant Biology Graduate Student Association
We had another great group of PBGSA Officers this year.
Thank you to:
- President: Melina Schopler
- Vice-President: Catie Sherry
- Treasurer: Asa Budnick
- Secretary: Bethany Mostert
- Social Chair: Katie Vollen
The 2024-2025 officers have been elected and they are:
- President: Katie Vollen
- Vice-President: Alden Sears
- Treasurer: Erin Emott
- Social Director: Kennedy Brinson
Microbiology
LW Parks Research Awards in Microbiology (Undergraduate):
- Rachel Edwards: Upstream Stimulatory Factor Impact on B-cell DNA Damage and cellular stress Major: Microbiology, Mentor: Dr. Michael Sikes.
- Daniel Richard: Investigating Roles of UDP-Glucose in Hyaluronic Acid Production in Fructose Treated Immortalized Kupffer Cells Major: Biochemistry, Mentor: Dr. Arion Kennedy.
- Emily Sontag: Molecular and Cultivation Assays of Human-Associated Methanogens Major: Genetics, Mentor: Dr. Zhe Lyu.
LW Parks Research Awards in Microbiology (Graduate)
- Samantha Kisthardt: Elucidating the role of cholate in preventing C. difficile infection in mice monocolonized with C. scindens Major: Microbiology, Mentor: Dr. Casey.
- Theriot Sivaranjani Palani: Role of rare and abundant microbiomes in the anaerobic degradation of long chain fatty acids Major: Microbiology, Mentor: Dr. Francis de los Reyes.
- Aurora Toennisson: Evaluating the effects of Azospirillum and PPX transgenic plants on phosphorus bioavailability Major: Plant Biology, Mentor: Dr. Imara Perera.
Celebrations
- Anna Dye and Eric Land successfully defended their dissertations and will be graduating in May.
- Alden Sears has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, becoming the third NSF Graduate Research Fellow currently in the Plant Biology Graduate Program (and second in the Will Petry Lab).
- Jade Lyons, a Genetics graduate student in the Alonso- Stepanova lab, was also awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (the second in the Alonso-Stepanova lab) so we have four in the department overall!
- Harry Ervin received Honorable Mention recognition in the NSFGRF competition.
- Bethany Mostert and Anne-Marie Pullen received travel awards from the American Society of Plant Biologists to attend and present at the annual meeting in Hawaii.
- Jade Lyons and Dr. Anna Stepanova received a ROOT & SHOOT MANRRS/SACNAS Travel Award for mentee/mentor pairs to attend the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research this summer in San Diego, CA.
- Anna Dye and Megan Franklin have both been selected for the BASF PhD Leadership Development Program.
- Anne-Marie Pullen was selected for the Bayer University Mentoring Program, which is described by Bayer as ” . . . a global 1:1 mentoring program to engage university partners, and contribute to the development of next generation of scientists by offering participating students with soft skill coaching and career development advice, and to build a long term relationship with our partners to deliver joint mission of ” Health for All. Hunger for None”.
- Alden Sears received the Dr. Jean H. Langenheim Endowed Graduate Fellowship in the Ecology and Evolution of Plants” from the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. The Langenheim Fellowship is a 2-year award that is meant to cover the costs of field research, and is the highest graduate student award offered by RMBL.
- Delecia Utley, Kira Lindelof, Bethany Mostert, and Anna Yaschenko represented our program at the NC State Graduate Student Research Symposium
- Bethany Mostert has been awarded a GES Minor fellowship for Fall 2024 by the Genetic Engineering & Society Program.
- Eric Land is the inaugural recipient of the CALS Outstanding Student Researcher Award.
- Aurora Toennisson has been awarded an LW Parks Research Award.
- Anna Yaschenko and Bethany Mostert each received Genetics & Genomics Academy minigrants to mentor undergraduate research student.
Master of Microbial Biotechnology (MMB)
This spring, the MMB had 14 graduating students. Read about their Capstone projects.
Additionally, the MMB program partnered with several companies this semester: iFyber, Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, and EpiCypher. MMB students worked with these partner companies over the course of the semester and completed their Spring practicum projects. Thank you to all of our MMB partners for their continued support in providing meaningful industry-related experiences to our students through guest lectures and practicum projects!”
Faculty Awards and Announcements
- Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin receives the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence
- Dr. Jose Alonso has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
- Dr. Jenny Xiang has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
- Dr. Seema Sheth was promoted to Associate Professor.
- Dr. Sirius Li was promoted to Professor.
- Dr. Anna Stepanova was promoted to Professor.
- Dr. Tzung-Fu Hsieh was promoted to Professor.
Staff Announcements and Recognition
- Elizabeth Thomas has received the CALS Award for Excellence!
Lab Announcements and Publications
Choudoir Lab
- Choudoir Lab’s Adam Breister (MB PhD student) received a GGA Student Travel Award to attend Strategies and Techniques for Analyzing Microbial Population Structures (STAMPS) at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA this July.
- Mallory Choudoir received a GOHA Faculty Travel Award to present the lab’s work at the Centennial Celebration and Congress of the International Union of Soil Sciences held in Florence, Italy. This interdisciplinary event addressing societal and environmental needs from a soil science perspective aligns with a new collaborative project recently funded by the CIHR to study microbiome stewardship.
- The Choudoir Lab hit the road to sample soils from NC State Ag Research Stations to examine how soil microbiomes respond to different land management strategies and organic amendments. Occasionally sampling alternative sources of carbon.
Grunden Lab
- Graduate Student Association Teaching Award PhD student Jabeen Ahmad was recognized this year with the following honors 2023-2024 Fulbright Fellowship recipient; 2024 PMB Graduate Student Poster award winner
- PhD student Micaela Robson was recognized this year with the following honors- 2023-2024 NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellowship recipient; First Place, Geo-Poster, Geo-Challenge Student Competition, Geo-Congress 2024, Vancouver, BC; 2024
Haigler Lab
- Andrew Thurman, a PMB undergraduate student, joined the Haigler lab as an undergraduate researcher. He mastered the challenging technique of cotton ovule culture in Spring 2024, and will continue his research in the summer.
Mickle Lab
- Jared Locklear successfully defended his doctoral dissertation “Floral and Ecological Assessment of a Pleistocene-age locality from the Atlantic Coastal Plain in Southeastern North Carolina, USA” in November.
Perera Lab
- Eric Land – Graduate Degree awarded May 2024 also awarded the CALS outstanding Graduate Research award (April 2024)
- Grad Student Aurora Toennisson – received the Sebastian award April 2024, and also a LW Parks Research award May 2024
- Undergraduate student Caitlyn Elliot – awarded a NC Space Grant for undergraduate research – April 2024
Raymann Lab
- The Raymann Lab has a new Research Associate Jason Bland.
- The Raymann Lab has 3 BeeMORE summer students (USDA REU program)- Yeslee Neris, Anjali Zumkhawala-Cook, and Emily Dillon.
- Kasie Raymann and Louis-Marie Bobay (Biological Sciences) received GGA Interdisciplinary Seed Grant – amount 50K.
Xie Lab
- Bethany Mostert, our PhD student, is a recipient of NC State’s Genetic Engineering and Society Center’s (GES) Interdisciplinary Minor Fellowship. She will minor in this program.
- Broseth Bun, freshman, is a recipent of the 2024 GGA Summer Team Research Mini-grant. He has been a research assistant of Bethany Mostert, our PhD student. This grant funds $2500 stipend to Seth (undergraduate student) and $1000 to Bethany, and up to $1000 for project-related expenses.
- Broseth Bun, freshman, was selected by the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2024 to present our research entitled “Screening stabilizing additives for the solubilization of Cytochrome P450 (CYP) and Cytochrome P450 Reductase (CPR) enzymes expressed in Escherichia coli,” on April 8-10, 2024, at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, 300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802. NCUR funded cost for travel, hotel, and food.
- Jessica Ardeshana, freshman, was selected by the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2024 to present our research entitled “Testing the efficiency of membrane enzyme truncations for medicinal in-vitro systems using E. coli,” on April 8-10, 2024, at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, 300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802. NCUR funded cost for travel, hotel, and food.
- Publications:
- SM Ashbacher, Q Mills, AL Sohn, DY Xie, DC Muddiman, 2024, Incorporation of Three Different Optical Trains into the IR-MALDESI Mass Spectrometry Imaging Platform to Characterize Artemisia annua. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry 2024
- Mingzhuo Li, Guoliang Ma, Xiu Li, Lili Guo, Yanzhi Li, Yajun Liu, Wenzhao Wang, Xiaolan Jiang, De-Yu Xie, Liping Gao, Tao Xia, 2024, Removal of the C4-domain preserves the drought tolerance enhanced by CsMYB4a and eliminates the negative impact of this transcription factor on plant growth aBIOTECH, 1-7
- S Yuzuak, J Ballington, G Li, DY Xie, 2024, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Tandem Mass Spectrometry-Based Profiling Reveals Anthocyanin Profile Alterations in Berries of Hybrid Muscadine. Agronomy 14 (3), 442
Additional Publications
- Eric Miller: Tolyporphins–Exotic Tetrapyrrole Pigments in a Cyanobacterium—A Review (https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/28/16/6132)
Plant and Microbial Biology Spring 2024 Graduates
The PMB department commends you all on your resilience and perseverance in completing your degrees. Congratulations Graduates! Good luck on all your future endeavors and be sure to fill out our Alumni Update Form to stay in touch and receive our bi-annual newsletter.
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