– Part of the CDA Spring Lecture Series.

Speaker: Alexandra Jazz Dickinson

Assistant Professor, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego (USA)

Join us on Zoom

Theme

The many facets of chloroplasts – hosted by Dr. Juan Camilo Moreno Beltran.

Abstract

Small molecules, ranging from lipids to metabolites, are essential regulators of plant development and stress response. Apocarotenoids, metabolites derived from carotenoid pigment molecules, can be exquisitely tunable signaling cues in plant development. However, despite their importance, there remain fundamental gaps in our understanding of apocarotenoid-driven regulation of stem cell behavior. To address this, we are applying targeted chemical genetic approaches to uncover apocarotenoid signaling compounds and related genes that regulate plant development.

About the speaker

Alexandra Jazz Dickinson received her PhD in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She conducted her postdoctoral research in developmental plant biology with Prof. Philip Benfey at Duke University. She has also served as a visiting scientist at Stanford University and is a recipient of the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, the Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service at UNC-CH, and the Ruth L. Kirschstein Graduate Fellowship Award. Dickinson joined the University of California San Diego faculty in 2020, where she is pursuing research in small molecule regulation of development.