Great visit to the Boyce Thompson Institute
Science has a way of connecting past and future in the most tangible places. During my visit to the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), I had the chance to stop by a unique historical marker: the site where the first RNA nucleotide sequence was ever determ...
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PAG33
After returning to “normal life” following #PAG33, I’ve found myself still reflecting on just how much I gained from the meeting. PAG has a unique way of compressing a year’s worth of inspiration into a few days: new ideas, new tools, new datasets, and...
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🌱 What if we could understand and speak “Plant”?
This question guides much of my curiosity as a molecular geneticist. Plants already communicate with the world around them. They sense stress, recruit microbial partners, and reshape their own gene expression to survive. What inspires me is imagining h...
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🌿 I have learned that good mentors do not just advise, they listen.
Over the past months, I have been working with an amazing team to develop a mentoring training program focused on Social Identity Matters in Mentoring, and it has made me reflect deeply on what mentorship really looks like in practice. These conversati...
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🎉 A special milestone in my scientific journey.
Our latest paper, “Transcriptional dynamics of nitrogen fixation and senescence in soybean nodules: A dual perspective on host and Bradyrhizobium regulation,” is now published in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gJSez... (Link)
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🧑🧑🧒🧒🧬Parenthood and science, two journeys rooted in patience and care.
Parenthood has changed how I see science. In the lab, I plan, test, and wait for results I cannot fully control. At home, I do the same. Both remind me that growth takes time and that curiosity thrives when we create space for it. Balancing research a...
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🎉 This week marks 10 years since I defended my PhD!
It’s hard to believe how much has happened since that moment: the excitement of every discovery, the incredible mentors, and fantastic colleagues who shaped my path. In the ten years since, I’ve had the chance to keep exploring the questions that firs...
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Behind every discovery are failed experiments and moments of doubt.
Science is often shown as a series of breakthroughs, but most of our days are filled with things that do not work. Plants die in the growth chamber, gels run wrong, data make no sense, and yet we come back the next morning to try again. That invisibl...
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🌿 What Plants Can Teach Us About Communication
Plants do not have mouths, but they are remarkable communicators. They send and receive messages through the air, the soil, and even within their own cells. Their entire survival depends on being able to sense their surroundings and respond accordingl...
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Team Meetup in Colorado!
Earlier this week, we met with our collaborators from the exRNA project in beautiful Colorado for a few days of science, brainstorming, and fresh mountain air. It was such a joy to catch up in person, share our latest results, and plan the next round o...
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🌿 Some People Find Beauty in Art Galleries; I Find It in Plant Resilience
There is a special kind of elegance in how plants face the world. They cannot move away from danger, yet they constantly adapt. They adjust their metabolism, fine-tune their gene expression, and even communicate with their neighbors through signals we ...
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Annual D2R2 Meeting at the University of Arkansas
Last week, we gathered for our annual D2R2 meeting at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. It was a productive and energizing time, full of great discussions, data sharing, and planning for the next phase of our collaboration. We are especiall...
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New Article: Making Conferences in the Plant Sciences More Inclusive
I’m excited to share a new article I co-authored, published in eLife, titled “Making conferences in the plant sciences more inclusive through community recommendations.” This work grew out of the ROOT & SHOOT Research Coordination Network, where a dive... (Link)
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Summer 2025 Interns: Jason and Owen Wrap Up Their Genome Center Experience
This summer, we were thrilled to host Jason (University of Arkansas) and Owen (Indiana University) as interns in the Baldrich Lab at the Genome Center at UC Davis. During their time here, they contributed to an exciting project aimed at understanding e...
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