Research Staff

 

 

Richard Sayre Laboratory OSU Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology

Uzo Ihemere, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology, The Ohio State University           Uzo obtained BS and MS degrees in Botany from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria and a Ph.D in Horticulture and Crop Science from The Ohio State University, Columbus (2003).  His graduate research was on cassava transformation to increase the starch content of the root-tuber. Uzo and colleagues were able to increase the root-tuber starch by up to two times by expressing a modified E. coli glgC gene in cassava. Uzo is involved in the BioCassava Plus project aimed at increasing the bio-available Fe in cassava root-tuber by transforming cassava with Chlamydomonas FEA1 gene, an Fe-transporter gene, codon-optimized for cassava.  The alternative strategy is using Arabidopsis FER1 gene.  Previously, Uzo worked on down-regulating gbss (granule-bound starch synthase) gene in cassava root-tuber to increase the amylopectin:amylose ratio.  While in Nigeria, he worked in the National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike, Nigeria on the tissue culture of African root crops (cassava, ginger, cocoyam, yam) for one year establishing the regeneration and germplasm maintenance techniques.  Uzo is interested in a career in plant biotechnology (metabolic engineering) in academic or industry settings to improve crops.

Tawanda Zidenga, M.S. Graduate student, Department of Plant Cellular & Molecular Biology, The Ohio State University           Tawanda obtained a BSc in Crop Science at the University of Zimbabwe in 2001 and went on to do post-graduate research in Plant Biotechnology at the same university. His master’s thesis was on somatic embryogenesis in elite maize germplasm in Zimbabwe.  While in Zimbabwe, Tawanda worked for Agri-Biotech, a small company working on transferring tissue culture technology for virus elimination in cassava and sweet potato planting material to farmers, before moving to the Ohio State University in 2003 as a visiting research scholar. He joined the graduate program in PCMB in 2004 and Dick Sayre’s lab in 2005. Tawanda’s current project focuses in cyanide metabolism as it relates to post-harvest physiological deterioration and amino acid pool sizes in cassava. Tawanda is also a contributing writer for Information Systems for Biotechnology based at Virginia Tech. Tawanda is a member of the Africabiotech media contacts team, and the Southern African Young Professionals, for which he is also the webmaster.

Ms. Elisa Leyva-Guerrero Graduate Student, Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology, The Ohio State University           Ms. Elisa Leyva-Guerrero graduated on May 2004 with a B.S. in Chemistry from the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, México. She was awarded a High Academic Achievement Award by the National Assesment Center for Higher Education (CENEVAL) for her academic progress and received first place for her Final Undergraduate Research Proyect on Diffusive gradients in Thin Films Technique for analysis of heavy metals in rivers.   She was awarded a University Fellowship by The Ohio State University to pursue graduate studies in the Department of Horticulture of Crop Science. She joined the MS degree program in such department in Autumn 2004 and began working under the supervision of Dr. Richard Sayre in a project involving Protein Content Enhancement in Cassava roots. The Department of Horticulture and Crop Science granted Ms. Leyva-Guerrero an Ohio Research and Development Center Scholarship for her second year of studies. The Mexican National Science Council (CONACyT) awarded Ms. Leyva-Guerrero a Stipend Fellowship as well for her second year of studies. Ms. Leyva-Guerrero is at the moment continuing her work on protein content enhancement and free amino acid pool analysis of cassava roots as part of the Bio Cassava Plus Project.

Mary Ann G. Abiado, Ph.D. Program Administrator, BioCassava Plus           Mary Ann has been working as Program Administrator for Biocassava Plus since September, 2005.  She assists Dr. Richard Sayre, Principal Investigator, in various administrative tasks such as preparation of reports and documents for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, planning and organization of research meetings, monitoring budgets, making travel arrangements, and managing the project website, http://biocassavaplus.org. Mary Ann completed a Bachelors degree in Fish Biology at Central Luzon State University, Nueva Ecija, Philippines.  She pursued Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in the fields of animal genetics and reproductive physiology under the direction of Professors David Skibinski and John Beardmore at the University of Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom.  She worked as postdoctoral researcher for five years at the Department of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison and School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University.  She has published over fifteen research articles in peer-reviewed international journals in aquaculture, fish diseases, fish biology. In 2002, Mary Ann decided to diversify her skills and knowledge in the health sciences so she enrolled in continuing education at The Ohio State University and took prerequisite courses for the Graduate Entry program in Nursing. In April, 2007, she obtained her registered nursing licensure. Currently, she is on her final year of graduate study and plans to complete the Master's Program in Nursing in 2008. She is an active member of the Philippine American Society of Central Ohio and volunteers in community activities related to improving the health and nutrition of minority populations in central Ohio . Ultimately, she wanted to combine teaching, research, and clinical practice. She wanted to get involved with research related to minority health, epidemiological investigations, global health, and minimization of health care costs through effective delivery of technologies to rural areas in the United States and to developing countries.

Anthonia A. Soboyejo Research Aide Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology, The Ohio State University           Anthonia has been working as research aide at the Sayre Laboratory since 1999. She was initially assigned to do tissue culture.  Later, her responsibilities involved taking stocks of in-vitro and greenhouse plants, and taking care of cassava plants in the green house. Recently, she was assigned to lead cassava grafting experiments. Anthonia studied in various colleges and universities in Nigeria such as the Saint Mary's Convent School, Saint Teresa's College, Department of Botany and Zoology and College of Education, University of Lagos. She has a combined honors degree in botany and zoology and a masters degree in education, specializing in biology.  She worked as a biology teacher, an inspector of quality of education in local schools, and a high school principal.  Her exemplary teaching abilities were recognized by the Nigerian Union of Teachers at the Ojo Local Government.  She received a certificate for being the Teacher of the Year in 1992. Anthonia's ancestors were historically prominent in Nigeria.  She is the great grand daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.D. Phillips, prominent Nigerian merchants, as documented in the famous Red Book of West Africa.  She currently lives with her husband, Professor Alfred Soboyejo of the College of Agriculture, The Ohio State University.  Her family received the 2006 Family of the Year award for Council 400.  Other than her passion for working at the greenhouse, Anthonia is also a good cook and an all-around seamstress.

Narayanan N. Narayanan, Ph.D. Research Associate Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology The Ohio State University           Narayanan obtained his bachelors and masters degrees in Plant Science and doctoral in Botany (Molecular Plant Pathology) from University of Madras, India. During his doctoral studies Narayanan was awarded with a Rockefeller Foundation grant, to pursue his research dissertation at the International Rice Research Institute, Manila, Philippines. His graduate research was on molecular breeding to develop rice that are resistant to blast and bacterial blight. After his doctoral studies, Narayanan joined Dr. Madan Bhattacharyya’s laboratory at Iowa State University, where he worked on several projects to understand the molecular mechanisms that determine the recognition and signal transduction events in soybean-Phytophthora sojae (Root rot pathogen) interaction. Later, Narayanan joined Dr. Michael Grusak’s laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center, which is jointly funded by the Baylor College of Medicine and the US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). Narayanan pursued a large-scale expression profiling and functional analysis of metal homeostasis genes and gene products in rice. With 10 years of experience in crop development, Dr. Narayanan joined Dr. Richard Sayre’s laboratory in August 2007.  Narayanan is involved in the BioCassava Plus project aimed at increasing the content and bioavailability of iron in cassava tubers, to decrease the cyanogen content in cassava tubers, to develop virus-resistant cassava varieties and demonstrate its resistance in the field. Besides work, Narayanan likes listening to music and spend time with his family especially with his new born son Navin.

Martin Fregene Lab and Hernan Ceballos Laboratory (CIAT, Cali, Colombia)

Chiedozie Egesi, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher, BioCassava Plus, CIAT Contact: International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), AA 6713, Cali, Colombia Email: c.egesi@cgiar.org Tel: 57 2 445 0000 Fax: 57 2 445 0073           Chiedozie is a Nigerian and obtained a PhD in the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2001. His graduate research was on the molecular assessment of genetic variability and understanding the reproductive biology of water yam. He joined the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike as a cassava breeder in 2002 and also supervised its new molecular marker-assisted selection facility. The main focus of his research was molecular breeding for resistance to the cassava mosaic disease. The Cassava Research Programme coordinates the national pre-release varietal trials conducted in all agroecologies of the cassava growing areas of Nigeria. He has numerous publications in cassava and yam breeding or genetics in peer reviewed journals. Chiedozie joined as a postdoctoral researcher in Martin Fregene’s Lab at CIAT in 2005. He works on the introgression of delayed post-harvest physiological deterioration (PPD) genes from Manihot walkerae (a wild relative of cassava) into cultivated cassava in the BioCassava Plus project. He is also investigating the genetics of inheritance of the delayed PPD trait. The ultimate aim is to transfer this trait through molecular breeding into adapted cassava varieties for distribution to breeders and farmers in the major cassava growing areas of the world. Chiedozie’s goal is to apply modern molecular genetics approaches to low-cost and efficient improvement schemes aimed at making cassava fulfill its roles as a food security and poverty alleviation crop. During his leisure time, Chiedozie enjoys traveling and visiting historic sites. He is married to Chioma and they have a son Chineme.

Constantino Estevão Cuambe, MSc Candidate, National University of Colombia, Researcher (IIAM), Visiting Researcher, CIAT           Constantino Estevão Cuambe, a Mozambican, obtained his first degree in Agronomy, with emphasis in plant breeding from the Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique in 2001 where he assessed the morphological variation of sweet potato germplasm. He works with the Roots and Tubers Program of the Agrarian Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM) and specifically breeds for resistance to Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD); as well as in technologies transfer (cassava and sweet potato) to farmers.  He has collaborated with the Mozambican College of Agrarian Sciences at Mussa Bin Bique University in Biometrics (2002 - 2005). He was also an adviser of rural development projects in the Association for Agricultural Development of small scale farmers (ADAP-SF) in Mozambique and sometimes helped in rural socioeconomics studies for some non-government organizations (OWMIRA NAKOSSO, ADAP-SF. He is currently a visiting researcher at CIAT and is a Masters Degree student in Plant Breeding at the National University of Colombia under the supervision of Hernan Ceballos (PhD), Martin Fregene (PhD) and Chiedozie Egesi (PhD). His work is centered on identifying molecular markers for delayed post-harvest physiological deterioration in cassava. Constantino likes to communicate his knowledge and experience through television, radio, newspapers and the internet. On most weekends he likes to be with the family and sometimes to visit friends. He reserves some time for indoor sports such as table tennis, billiards and soccer.

Peng Zhang and William Gruissem Laboratory

Martin Stupak Institut f. Pflanzenwissenschaften Universitätstrasse 2 ETH-Zentrum, LFW E 32.1 CH-8092 Zürich Phone:+41 44 632 57 13 E-Mail: martin.stupak@ipw.biol.ethz.ch           From 1998 to 2003, Martin studied food-chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany), specializing in analytical chemistry and nutritional biochemistry. In 2003, he conducted his Masters thesis in plant genetics at the University of Western Australia. Since 2004, he has been working on his doctoral degree at ETH-Zurich. His goal is to improve the protein content in cassava storage roots by heterologous expression of valuable storage proteins. A special emphasis is on sub-cellular targeting. My current expertise derived from that is in protein engineering, cell-biology, fluorescence microscopy, cassava tissue culture, and amino-acid analysis. Since 2005, he has been involved in a non-profit organization (www.YEBN.org) trying to network between biotech industry, academia, and the public.  This opportunity provides him with extensive knowledge about communication, networking, coordination, and leadership. Besides work, he enjoys SCUBA diving, rock climbing), and soccer.

Herve Vanderschuren Institut f. Pflanzenwissenschaften Universitätstrasse 2 ETH-Zentrum, LFW E 46.1 CH-8092 ZürichPhone:+41 44 632 49 52 E-Mail: herve.vanderschuren@ipw.biol.ethz.ch           Herve Vanderschuren obtained his B.Sc. at the University of Agricultural and Bio Sciences of Gembloux (FUSAGx, Belgium). He continued his Master studies at FUSAGx before being selected for a double-diploma program with the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (INAP-G, France). During his studies, he did several internships to gain knowledge in different fields such as molecular biology (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada), phytochemistry (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada), agronomy (Scottish Agricultural College, Aberdeen, UK). He finished his Master studies in 2002 at INAP-G and decided to join the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2003 to start his PhD studies. He is now working on improving geminivirus resistance in cassava by using RNA interference. The aim of his PhD is to produce transgenic cassava lines with enhanced resistance to cassava mosaic disease (CMD) which is one of the most important cassava diseases in Africa. Recently, he has been involved in the synthetic biology field and took part in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition 2005 (iGEM 2005) as a member of the ETH team 2005. He is also interested in biotechnology promotion and for this purpose he is an active member of the Young European Biotech Network (www.yebn.org). Outside the laboratory, he likes reading, theater (acting and watching) and sport (running, cycling and climbing).

Isabel Moreno, M.S. Institute of Plant Sciences, Universitaetstrasse 2 8092 Zurich, Switzerland Email: isabelm@ethz.ch Tel:+41 44 6324952           Isabel completed a bachelor's degree in bacteriology at Catholic University, Manizales, Colombia. She obtained a master's degree in biological sciences major in genetics under the direction of Dr Martin Fregene at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia.  Isabel worked as research assistant at CIAT during 2005-2007.  Isabel worked on developing fine mapping and positional cloning of CMD2 dominant gene that confers high levels of resistant against cassava mosaic disease (CMD) in cassava.  Her research was focused on the development of genomics resources for cloning useful genes in cassava including CMD and delayed post harvest deterioration.  She was also involved in isolation of full-length cDNA clones of differentially expressed transcripts for traits of agronomic importance, understanding allele diversity at orthologous candidate genes in cassava, training students and visiting researchers on cloning, library construction, sequences analysis, tilling, RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis. She is currently a doctoral student at the Institute of Plant science ETH-Zurich.  Her research at ETH-Zurich focuses on evaluating different strategies to confer resistance in cassava against cassava brown streak virus.

Judith Adhiambo Owiti Graduate student, Plant Biotechnology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zentrum, LFW E36.1 Universitätstraße, 2 CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland           Ms Judith Owiti graduated in 2000 with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.  She was awarded a scholarship by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2001 and proceeded to do a post-graduate training in  biochemistry at the same University. Her masters thesis work was on plant biotechnology, a project focusing on genetic engineering of sweet potato for insect resistance. On completion of her masteral degree, Judith stayed at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked part-time as a teaching assistant. In 2005, Judith obtained a Rockefeller scholarship to pursue graduate studies in Plant Biotechnology at the Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zurich. She is currently working under the supervision of Professor Wilhelm Gruissem and Professor Peng Zhang in a project on modulation of post harvest physiological deterioration in cassava. Outside research, Ms Owiti likes singing and reading as well as hiking.

John Beeching Laboratory

Simon Bull Research Officer Department of Biology and Biochemistry University of Bath, United Kingdom           Simon graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology in 1999. He spent 5 years working at the John Innes Centre, UK, where he was involved in several research projects investigating the disease complexes and molecular aetiology of geminiviruses that infect commercially important crops such as beans, cotton and cassava. From these studies a number of peer-reviewed papers have been published. He completed an MSc (Research) with Distinction from the John Innes Centre/University of East Anglia in 2005. The project, which addressed the molecular diversity and infectivity of cassava mosaic viruses in Kenya, resulted in the identification of a novel species and a new strain associated with cassava mosaic disease. The project also constitutes the most comprehensive survey of begomoviruses (Family Geminiviridae) associated with a single disease undertaken to date and was published in the Journal of General Virology in 2006. Simon is now working as a Research Officer in the University of Bath.  His research is focused on modulating post-harvest physiological deterioration (PPD) of cassava roots as part of the BioCassava Plus grant. He is also involved in collaborative research activities in ETH, Zurich to transform cassava to minimize PPD and thus improve marketability of the crop. Simon is a member of the Biochemical Society, Institute of Biology and the Society for Experimental Biology.

Michael Page Doctoral student, Department of Biology and Biochemistry University of Bath, United Kingdom           Mike obtained a masters degree in biology at the University of Bath in 2005.  He conducted research on the toxin complex genes of Photorhabdus luminescens.  He also conducted research in Syngenta (Berkshire, UK) on over-expressing herbicide targets in Nicotiana tabacum. Mike started his doctoral degree in October 2005 at the University of Bath.  His research concerns the over-expression of scavengers of reactive oxygen species in cassava in order to modulate post-harvest physiological deterioration (PPD). Mike is a sportsman who enjoys walking up mountains and also loves music.

Daniel Schachtman Laboratory

Eliana Gaitan-Solis Postdoctoral Fellow Donald Danforth Plant Science Center St, Louis, Missouri, USA                       Eliana obtained her bachelor's degree from the Universidad del Valle (Cali-Colombia) in Biology focused on genetics in 1994. She spent 10 years working at CIAT, Palmira-Colombia, where she was involved in molecular marker development and implementation of new methodologies for determining molecular diversity and molecular mapping studies in common bean, Brachiaria and palms. In 2004, she obtained her PhD in plant breeding from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Palmira-Colombia. Her PhD was funded by a scholarship for tuition and research from COLCIENCIAS, Colombia. Eliana's doctoral research was focused on population genetic structure and molecular genetic diversity of three endangered Colombian palms. After finishing her PhD, she worked for one-year as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois.  This work involved the isolation of promoters from 10 genes highly expressed in soybean under flooding stress. In 2005 she joined BioCassava Plus as a postdoctoral fellow at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. The research is focused on increasing the zinc content of the cassava tuber by overexpressing two zinc transporters from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Ed Cahoon Laboratory

Sarah Hunter, Ph.D. USDA/ARS Donald Danforth Plant Science Center 975 North Warson Road St. Louis, MO 63132                       Sarah Hunter received undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Sociology from Lewis and Clark College in 1982 and spent almost a decade as a software engineer before she started her biology career. She received a B.S. in Biology in 1993, then earned a Ph. D. in Botany from Michigan State University in 1999 where she studied fatty acid synthesis in John Ohlrogge’s laboratory. After gaining some teaching experience, she returned to research in plant metabolism. She is currently working on enzymatic characterization of barley homogentisate geranylgeranyl transferase, a branch point enzyme which determines whether the tocopherol or tocotrienol form of vitamin E is produced. She would like to return to teaching, and plans to integrate her interests in plant metabolism, metabolic engineering, and mathematical modeling with undergraduate research. She spends much of her spare time traveling from Saint Louis to Arizona to visit her spouse, cat, and house.

 

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