As part of EYH, CROPPS trainee and doctoral student in plant biology Michelle Heeney hosted a workshop on biologically inspired engineering using plants with the lab of Adrienne Roeder, professor at the the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology and the Section of Plant Biology in the School of Integrative Plant Science. The workshop also tackled a common but often overlooked issue in...

Dr. Adrienne Roeder joins worldwide colleagues in this commentary in The Plant Cell. Over the past 40 years, Arabidopsis has emerged as the most powerful and versatile plant model to uncover core biological principles and served as a prototyping system to test advanced molecular and genetic concepts. The authors argue that the emerging challenges of accelerating climate instability and a rapidly...

A team of researchers at Cornell University have made a discovery in fruit flies that could change the way we understand brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in humans.   The scientists found that Eato—a fruit-fly protein whose counterparts in mammals were already known for helping brain cells get rid of harmful fats—actually has a much bigger job. It not only protects...

Congratulations, Byron! Byron Rusnak is a graduate student with Adrienne Roeder. Byron uses imaging and genetic techniques to measure the cellular signaling and growth patterns that lead to the precise and coordinated development of plant sepals. The Barbara McClintock Graduate Student Award is made possible by an endowment from Dr. Robert Rabson to honor outstanding senior graduate students...

Karisa Bockley, a BME undergraduate student in the Lammerding Lab, was recognized by the Cornell Engineering Alumni Association with their 2025 Undergraduate Research Award. This award includes $1,000 towards further research. In addition, Karisa just published a co-first author publication (‘micro-publication’) with her mentor: Filamin A interacting protein 1-like (FILIP1L) has...

As an undergraduate researcher in the Dörr Lab, Zoe Tarun ’25 investigates how bacteria construct and maintain a healthy cell envelope, and how they resist being killed by antibiotics. Coming to Cornell from a rural background, Zoe had limited experience in lab research but was eager to get involved. After meeting Professor Tobias Dörr in his microbiology class, she was invited to join his...