Snigdha was born and raised in India. She received her PhD in Plant Science from Banaras Hindu University where she studied proteomic changes in Anabaena spp. under salt stress; how differential protein expression regulates stress response and adaptation. During her doctoral research, she also worked on characterization of photorespiratory enzyme phosphoglycolate phosphatase at the University of Rostock, Germany as DAAD fellow. In the Woodson Lab, her work focusses on the role of plant U box 4 (PUB4) E3 ubiquitin ligase in chloroplast quality control and understanding how singlet oxygen signal involving PUB4 results in selective chloroplast degradation.

Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jR_IkJoAAAAJ&hl=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewlemke2

Originally from Colorado, Matt completed his undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at UA, where he joined the Woodson lab and investigates the molecular processes at play in selective chloroplast degradation and cell death. His work involves the use of a forward genetic approach, activation tagging, in a suppressor screen to identify genes and molecular mechanisms involved in singlet oxygen-induced chloroplast quality control (CQC). He is also investigating how different reactive oxygen species generated in various subcellular compartments affect CQC and is exploring a potential role for microautophagy in CQC. In his free time, Matt enjoys hiking, cinema, photography, and traveling as much as possible.

Nathaniel studies the initiation and propagation of long distance “waves” in response to stress

Cristian studies how cytoplasmic nucleotides affect chloroplast stress signaling. He is also involved in the CROPPS project and is building optogenetic switches to drive gene expression in root systems.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecaacevedob7/

Originally from México. Rebeca moved to the US during high school and continued her education at Northern Arizona University where she graduated with a B.S in Biological and Natural Resource Sciences. Her work focuses on ribosomal proteins in the chloroplast and how these affect the chloroplast singlet oxygen signal that leads to selective chloroplast degradation.
In her free time she enjoys baking, reading novels and spending time with her tiny dog.

Sophia is also a real human, not a plant! She works along with Matt Lemke studying the impacts of climate change in Cacao and Coffee plants.

Rabia is also a real human, not a plant! She works along with Cristian to design and build optogenetic switches in plants.