February 20, 2020
Adrienne Roeder will present Division of Biology Seminar on Feb. 24
Submitted by Division of Biology
Adrienne Roeder, a Nancy M. and Samuel C. Fleming term associate professor at Cornell University's Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology and School of Integrative Plant Science, Section of Plant Biology, will present "A novel developmental patterning mechanism based on the fluctuations of a transcription factor" at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24, in 221 Ackert Hall.
Roeder is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Career Grant on cell size patterning in the model plant Arabidopsis. She is interested in the fundamental question of how living tissues produce organs of the same size, shape and function repeatedly in development. Her research team studies the role of cell division and cell growth in the diversity of cell types in the sepal, a leaf-like organ that protects young flowers. The cell types include remarkable "giant cells" that arise through a signaling cascade during development.
The Roeder lab uses live cell imaging and computational approaches to uncover the complex mechanisms by which cell division cues affect developmental fates of giant cells as well as other specialized cells in the plant. During her seminar, Roeder will describe how the fluctuations of the homeodomain leucine zipper transcription factor ATML1 establish a pattern of highly polyploid giant cells interspersed between smaller cells within the sepal.
In addition to her research program, Roeder is committed to science education for young girls in New York state and she leads workshops to empower girls to choose careers in science and engineering.