Virginia Walbot (born 1946) is an American agriculturalist and botanist who is a professor [1] in the Department of Biology at Stanford University. She investigates maize development with a focus on factors involved in male sterility. [2]
Walbot first began working with corn when she used to help grow and sell it on her family's farm in Southern California. [3] Later in the 1970s she met Barbara McClintock, who was very influential.[ clarification needed ] That is when Walbot began visiting McClintock's lab in Cold Spring Harbor and became devoted to studying maize development and reproduction.
In 1967, Walbot received a B.A. degree in biology at Stanford University. In 1969–1972, attended Yale to work on embryogenesis, where she earned an M.Phil. and Ph.D. She attended the University of Georgia on a postdoctoral appointment. She became a faculty Member at Washington University in St. Louis. Later Walbot returned to Stanford as a professor in the Department of Biology.
Walbot first worked with maize while working with Ed Coe in the University of Missouri.
Walbot participates in societies including the American Society for Cell Biology, AAAS, AIBS, Genetics Society, and International Society for Plant Molecular Biology [4]
Published two books, Developmental Biology in 1987 and The Maize Handbook in 1993. [5]
Barbara McClintock was an American scientist and cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927. There she started her career as the leader of the development of maize cytogenetics, the focus of her research for the rest of her life. From the late 1920s, McClintock studied chromosomes and how they change during reproduction in maize. She developed the technique for visualizing maize chromosomes and used microscopic analysis to demonstrate many fundamental genetic ideas. One of those ideas was the notion of genetic recombination by crossing-over during meiosis—a mechanism by which chromosomes exchange information. She produced the first genetic map for maize, linking regions of the chromosome to physical traits. She demonstrated the role of the telomere and centromere, regions of the chromosome that are important in the conservation of genetic information. She was recognized as among the best in the field, awarded prestigious fellowships, and elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1944.
Gerald Schatten is an American stem cell researcher with interests in cell, developmental, and reproductive biology. He is Professor and vice-chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Professor of Cell Biology and of Bioengineering in the Schools of Medicine and Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also Director of the Division of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine at the university's School of Medicine. Additionally, he is deputy director of the Magee-Women's Research Institute and Director of the Pittsburgh Development Center.. He is a member of the NCI-designated University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Ruth Sager was an American plant geneticist, cell physiologist and cancer researcher. In the 1950s and 1960s she pioneered the field of cytoplasmic genetics by discovering transmission of genetic traits through chloroplast DNA, the first known example of genetics not involving the cell nucleus. The academic community did not acknowledge the significance of her contribution until after the second wave of feminism in the 1970s. Her second career began in the early 1970s and was in cancer genetics; she proposed and investigated the roles of tumor suppressor genes.
Jeffrey Lynn Bennetzen is an American geneticist on the faculty of the University of Georgia (UGA). Bennetzen is known for his work describing codon usage bias in yeast, and E. coli; being the first to clone and sequence an active transposon in plants, discovering that most of the DNA in plant genomes was a particular class of mobile DNA (LTR-retrotransposons); solving the C-value paradox; proposing sorghum and Setaria as model grasses; showing that rice centromeres were hotspots for recombination, but not crossovers; and developing a technique to date polyploidization events. He is an author, with Sarah Hake of the book "Handbook of Maize." Bennetzen was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2004.
Barbara J. Meyer is a biologist and geneticist, noted for her pioneering research on lambda phage, a virus that infects bacteria; discovery of the master control gene involved in sex determination; and studies of gene regulation, particularly dosage compensation. Meyer's work has revealed mechanisms of sex determination and dosage compensation—that balance X-chromosome gene expression between the sexes in Caenorhabditis elegans that continue to serve as the foundation of diverse areas of study on chromosome structure and function today.
Ann M. Arvin is an American pediatrician and microbiologist. She is the Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Microbiology & Immunology Emerita at Stanford University. Arvin is a specialist of the Varicella zoster virus (VZV) and a prominent national figure in health. Arvin is currently the chief of the infectious diseases division of pediatrics at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, as well as the former Stanford's Vice Provost and Dean of Research.
Thomas Christian Südhof, ForMemRS, is a German-American biochemist known for his study of synaptic transmission. Currently, he is a professor in the school of medicine in the department of molecular and cellular physiology, and by courtesy in neurology, and in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
Lucy Shapiro is an American developmental biologist. She is a professor of Developmental Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and the director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine.
Helen Blau is a cell biologist and stem cell researcher famous for her work on muscle diseases, regeneration and aging. She is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor and the Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University. Blau is known for overturning the prevailing view that once a cell assumes a certain specialty in the body — or differentiated state —such as a skin or liver cell, it cannot be changed. Her research established that the fate of mammalian cells can be altered. Her finding that specialized cells can be triggered to turn on genetic programs characteristic of other differentiated states provided early evidence that mammalian cellular reprogramming was possible and opened the door to the use of reprogramming in stem cell biology. Her work set the stage for the development of induced pluripotent stem cells and associated stem cell therapies.
Mary Jane Osborn was an American biochemist and microbiologist known for her research on the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide, a key component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, and discovering the mechanism of action of the anti-cancer drug methotrexate. She headed the Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Connecticut Health Center and served as president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
The McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies is a prize awarded in genetics and genomics. The Prize is awarded by the Maize Genetics Executive Committee, and is presented to the Prize winner each spring at the Annual Maize Genetics Conference.
Charles Russell Burnham (1904–1995) was an American plant geneticist who studied maize cytology and genetics. In 1968 he was elected a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy. After his retirement he played a critical role in developing a blight resistant strain of the American chestnut.
Robert Anthony Martienssen is a British plant biologist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute–Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigator, and professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, US.
Jin Zhang is a Chinese-American biochemist. She is a professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry, and biomedical engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
Sarah Hake is an American plant developmental biologist who directs the USDA's Plant Gene Expression Center in Albany, CA. In 2009 she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Vicki L. Chandler is a plant geneticist and member of the National Science Board. She is currently the Provost and Chief Academic Officer of Minerva University. Her research focuses on gene silencing and paramutation.
Maureen Hanson is an American molecular biologist and Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She is a joint member of the Section of Plant Biology and Director of the Center for Enervating Neuroimmune Disease. Her research concerns gene expression in chloroplasts and mitochondria, photosynthesis, and the molecular basis of the disease Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).
Alice Cheung is an American biochemist who is a professor of molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research considers the molecular and cellular biology of polarization. She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.
Mary E. Clutter was an American plant biologist who studied the interactions between plant hormones and gene activation in order to understand how to manipulate and alter gene expression. A Pennsylvanian, she obtained a Ph.D from the University of Pittsburgh while studying plant tissues and went on to produce groundbreaking genetics research at Yale University.
Linda C. Giudice is an American gynecologist and obstetrician whose research has focused on the genetics of infertility, endometriosis, and the mechanisms of the menstrual cycle, along with the impacts of environmental pollutants on women's fertility. A New Yorker, she had an accelerated education with a heavy emphasis on the sciences, moving through multiple disciplines of engineering for her undergraduate and graduate degrees. Her postdoctoral fellowships introduced her to translational medicine and the genetics of women's health, resulting in her returning to her studies to obtain a medical degree.