Salk investigator receives developmental chair

Jeff Long

Jeff Long, associate professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, was awarded a Hearst Foundation Developmental Chair that will contribute annually to his lab over a period of three years. Long studies embryogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana, the "lab rat" for plant biologists. His lab focuses on the TOPLESS gene, so named because of its power to regulate the development of a shoot or a root structure from a seedling. His team has learned how to control the function of this gene, which ultimately can serve to manipulate plant structure and agricultural output.