External links
- Maarten Chrispeels publications indexed by Google Scholar
- Chrispeels UCSD Profile
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Maarten Chrispeels (born February 10, 1938) is a Belgian-American plant biologist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. [1] He is known for his research on the biosynthesis of storage proteins in legume seeds and for the discovery of water channel proteins (aquaporins) in plants. [2] He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1996. [3] He is an inaugural fellow of American Society of Plant Biologists. [4] He was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1973.
He was born in Kortenberg, Belgium. [5] He studied at the Faculty of Agriculture in Ghent, graduating summa cum laude. [6] In 1960, he moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Agronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [7] He completed postdoctoral research at Michigan State University and Purdue University. [2]
In 1967, Chrispeels joined the newly established Department of Biology at UCSD, where he remained for over four decades. [3] His early research focused on the secretion of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins in plant cells. [8] He later investigated the biosynthesis and vacuolar targeting of storage proteins in legume seeds, elucidating the role of the Golgi apparatus in protein trafficking. [9] His work contributed to the understanding of how proteins are modified and transported within plant cells. [3] Chrispeels' laboratory was among the first to use transgenic plants to study protein targeting. [8] While researching vacuolar transport signals, he and his colleagues identified aquaporins, membrane proteins that facilitate water movement across cell membranes, a discovery that advanced the field of plant-water relations. [10]
From 1996 to 2006, he served as director of the San Diego Center for Molecular Agriculture at UCSD. [3] For 12 years (1999-2011) he served as an advisor to the President of Chile on the Millennium Science Initiative Program and was elected as a foreign correspondent of the Academia Chilena de Ciencias. [11] He was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa degree by the University of Guelph, Canada. [12]
Chrispeels co-founded two biotechnology companies. Phylogix, aimed at developing radioprotective agents for stem cells, ceased operations following funding withdrawal. [7] In 2010, he co-founded Arterra Bioscience with Gabriella Colucci in Italy. [13] The company focused on plant-based skincare products. After Arterra's IPO in 2021, [14] Chrispeels sold his shares and donated the proceeds to establish an endowed professorship in plant biology at UCSD. [15]
In the 1980s, Chrispeels collaborated with researchers in Australia and the United States to develop insect-resistant transgenic crops. [16] His work on expressing a bean-derived alpha-amylase inhibitor in peas rendered them resistant to the pea bruchid beetle, marking one of the earliest successful uses of genetic engineering for pest resistance in seeds. [17]
Chrispeels has been an advocate for the use of biotechnology in addressing global food security and environmental sustainability. [18] He has emphasized the potential of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to contribute to sustainable agriculture by enhancing crop yields, [19] improving resistance to pests and environmental stressors, and reducing the reliance on chemical inputs such as pesticides and herbicides. [20]
Chrispeels co-authored the textbook Plants, Genes and Crop Biotechnology and produced educational materials translated into multiple languages. [21]
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