Danny Alexander, Ph.D.
Senior Study Director, Agriculture, Metabolon, Inc.
Insights on Using Metabolomics for Plant Molecular
Phenotyping
Abstract:
In plant biology, the utility of metabolomics continues to expand from basic research
through crop improvement. Through accurate measurement of the biochemical
underpinnings of a particular trait - plant development, disease, mutations, stresses, or
other factors – the molecular and genetic basis of these traits can be mechanistically
understood with metabolomics. The keys to successfully leveraging metabolomic
molecular phenotyping to enable both basic and applied plant sciences are robust study
design, careful sampling and knowledgeable interpretation.
Biography:
Dr. Alexander has over 30 years’ experience in plant molecular biology and
biochemistry. Before joining Metabolon, he held positions at ARCO Plant Cell Research
Institute and Calgene, working on cloning of agriculturally important genes, and later
worked at Ciba-Geigy/Novartis/Syngenta and BASF, working on plant disease resistance,
maize molecular genetics and genomics. Dr. Alexander has been at Metabolon since 2003,
initially working on development of the metabolomics platform and software. He
currently provides analysis and biological interpretation of study results. His scientific
papers related to work at Metabolon have been published in leading journals such as
Nature, Nature Medicine, Cancer Research, Plant Cell and Plant Physiology, among
others.