Principal Investigator
Wolfgang Busch
Professor
Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory
Integrative Biology Laboratory
Wolfgang did his undergraduate studies in Biology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. During this time, he also spent 8 months at UC San Diego where he received training on computational biology and conducted research on transporter proteins. During his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, he identified novel key regulatory genes and modules for plant stem cell control via a systems biology approach integrating transcriptome- and genome-scale transcription factor-DNA binding data. Wolfgang received his PhD in 2008 from the University of Tübingen. During his postdoctoral training at Duke University he contributed to the discovery of spatiotemporally defined regulatory modules that control proliferation of stem cells and differentiation in the root, and used high-throughput confocal microscopy to capture dynamic features of gene expression. In 2011, he joined the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology in Vienna as a group leader. During this time, he established his research program in root systems genetics and focuses on understanding which genes, genetic networks, and molecular processes determine root growth and its responses to the environment. In 2017, he came to the Salk as an Associate Professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory. He is also part of the Integrative Biology Laboratory. A recent key interest of Wolfgang is researching and developing plant varieties with enhanced carbon sequestration capabilities for removing CO2 from the atmosphere and thereby counteracting climate change.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Min Cao
Postdoctoral Fellow
Min received his Ph.D. from Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019. During his PhD he identified a non-canonical auxin signaling pathway which was involved in apical hook development. He joined in Busch lab as a postdoctoral fellow in Nov 2019 to study how plants adapt to the climate changes. His research subject is the regulatory mechanism of how nutrition signaling was transduced from the environment to the plant.
Yintong Chen
Postdoctoral Fellow
Yintong obtained her PhD at the Pennsylvania State University under the supervision of Dr. Charles Anderson, where she studied how guard cell dynamics are determined by cell wall biochemistry and biomechanics. She started in the Busch lab in January of 2022, and has since developed an interest in the suberin synthesis process and its function in root water uptake. Outside the lab, she likes reading, playing the ukulele, and practicing calligraphy, she is also the co-chair of APIDA at Salk!
Sanghwa Lee
Postdoctoral Fellow
Originally from South Korea, Sanghwa completed his PhD at UT Austin under the supervision of Enamul Huq in May of 2021. During his PhD studies, he investigated how plants respond to high ambient temperature, termed thermomorphogenesis, due to the importance of global warming. He joined Busch lab at Salk in June of 2021. His main points of interest are: 1) obtaining a higher resolution in root thermomorphogenesis, and 2) identifying novel genes in rice root development. Outside of the lab, Sanghwa loves to play the piano and sing.
Ashish Rajurkar
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ashish received his PhD from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India, while collaborating with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, and with Duke University, USA. During his PhD. research, he was able to identify and map consistent QTLs for root traits and yield under drought. He was also involved in developing thicker and deeper drought-resilient root lines in Rice under target rainfed environments in India. After these discoveries, he moved to the United States to continue his root research. During his post-doctoral study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ashish studied root system size and distribution in Maize under nitrogen-deficient conditions. He also looked at how to best utilize large-scale Minirhizotrons, a multimodality phenomics approaches to phenotype root traits in field-based settings, and how to better understand the functional consequences of nutrient uptake. He then moved to the University of Missouri, Columbia to study Switchgrass, a promising bioenergy crop, and how it could be adapted to different environmental conditions with diverse root systems. Ashish has an interest in climate-smart agriculture and will be working on Soybean and Canola. He will be studying their root traits in hopes of increasing root depth, increasing soil carbon, improving soil health, and maximizing the water storage potential of soils.
Ying Sun
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ying is a first-gen immigrant who grew up in Las Vegas. She received her PhD from Stanford University with Dr. José Dinneny where she studied ABA signaling in the roots of stress tolerant plants. She is co-advised by Todd Michael and Wolfgang Busch and is interested in both research and entrepreneurship. She is currently working on understanding how divergence in genome structure and function underpin root systems in legumes and soybean. Ying is passionate about building community and advocating for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and She co-founded APIDAS at Salk and is currently the international liaison.
Matthieu Platre
Postdoctoral Fellow
Originally from France, Matthieu obtained his PhD at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in 2017. He was part of the cell signalling and endocytosis group mentored by Yvon Jaillais. During his PhD, he analyzed membrane electrostatics organization in plant cells and its role in cell-signaling and development. His main scientific question is how plant adapt to their environment. Matthieu joined the Busch’s lab in order to decipher the molecular gene network related to plant nutrition.
Charlotte Miller
Postdoctoral Fellow
Charlotte recently moved to San Diego from England where she worked at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. During her PhD her research was aimed at understanding the genetic regulation of stem mechanical strength is Brassica species and Wheat. Her post doctoral research was focused towards the genetic control of seed size and oil content in Brassica napus. In the Busch lab she will be exploring natural variation in several species to understand root growth. Outside of the lab she loves to play the piano and guitar and have recently taken up ceramics! Charlotte also enjoy cycling, hiking and spending as much time as possible at the beach.
Managers & Specialists
Justin Allen
Soil Specialist
Justin received his Master’s in Agronomy from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has worked in agricultural research since 2009. His background has focused on running private sector greenhouse and field experiments for soil and rhizosphere research. Prior to Salk he worked on rice greenhouse gas emissions in the Philippines at the International Rice Research Institute. He is passionate about sustainable agriculture in the developing world and how to solve the global issues of land use and climate change. Nature, tropical ecology, and surfing are his hobbies.
Elizabeth Berrigan
Bioinformatics Analyst
Elizabeth has a master’s in physics from the University of Chicago where she studied the relationship between hydrodynamics and string theory. As an undergraduate, she spent time at MIT studying the time evolution of entanglement entropy using the holographic principle in a system approaching equilibrium to understand how different quantum subsystems are correlated over time with Professor Hong Liu. After her master’s she went home to New Hampshire and worked on a farm and at a community art center that sold sustainably-made crafts. She is excited to be in the Busch lab using her quantitative skills to serve HPI’s goals. She is interested in developing deep learning pipelines for image analysis of roots in crops and using machine learning techniques for data analysis. She is at the greenhouse in Encinitas working alongside the phenotyping team as a bioinformatics analyst I. When she isn’t phenotyping roots, Elizabeth is tutoring math and physics or enjoying sustainable crafts such as wood-burning and making botanical dyes. She loves the outdoors.
Erin Daniels
Lab Coordinator
Erin received her BS degree in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she worked as a lab technician to domesticate a new oil seed crop. She left the Midwest to follow the sunshine to San Diego where she participated in C. elegans host-pathogen research at UCSD. Erin joined the Busch lab in 2017 as a research assistant to rejoin the plant community. She is now the HPI Project Manager and enjoys tracking the achievements across all HPI teams. When she’s not assisting scientists in the lab, she enjoys dirt biking, bouldering, hiking, and spending time with her nephew.”
Shane Hunt
Greenhouse Operations Supervisor
Shane received his BS degree in Environmental Science from PLNU. Upon graduating and after living in Southern California for his entire life, Shane moved east to work as a research associate at NYU Langone studying angiogenesis in zebrafish. After two years of research, he decided that he wanted to work in the food and sustainability field, and found Gotham Greens; an urban hydroponic grower that set out to provide year-round fresh produce grown in large cities. After a year in New York City, Shane moved with Gotham Greens to Providence, RI to commission and manage the facility of a 2.3-acre state-of-the-art greenhouse. After 5 years of Northeast winters, Shane headed back home to San Diego to manage Salk’s greenhouse operations, and enjoy the ocean without squeezing into a 5 mil wetsuit. In his free time, Shane enjoys surfing, woodworking, and spending time with his dog.
Bryan Miles
CroPS Project Manager
I am a graduate in Geological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a licensed California Professional Geologist (8739) with extensive experience in subsurface (groundwater and soil) assessment and remediation. I am working as the CRoPS PM in the Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI) where I am applying my assessment and remediation experience on HPI’s bold and ambitious goal to mitigate anthropogenic climate change using Salk Ideal Plants.Although my focus at HPI is on field trials management and planning, I am also involved with; scientific collaborations, soil coring, subcontractor management, hiring and onboarding, budgeting, project management software tools integration and utilization (Smartsheet and Asana), inter-laboratory coordination, problem solving and strategy.Please reach out! I am happy to answer questions or point you in the right direction regarding inquiries about the HPI team, planning and procedures, and/or scientific collaborations.
Kristen (Runge) Wertz
Lab Coordinator
Kristen is a San Diego native who received her BS in Biology from California State University San Marcos. After completion of her BS she went on to receive her Single Subject Teaching Credential in Life Sciences, also from California State University San Marcos. Kristen then spent 2 years as a high school teacher in San Diego. During her summers off from teaching she interned at NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and San Francisco State’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center, studying the genetics of marine organisms. She then left the teaching profession and joined the Salk Harnessing Plants Initiative in October 2019. Kristen started as a Research Assistant, working to identify and characterize factors associated with natural variations in the root system architecture of different species. After about 3 years as a Research Assistant, she then transitioned to the role of Lab Coordinator. Outside of the lab Kristen enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with her family.
Research Assistant
Ian Anderson
Research Assistant II
Ian received his bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. After a year of travel, he moved to San Diego to join the Busch lab in 2018 where he assisted his fellow postdocs in their research. He mainly focused on shoot and root growth responses to high ambient temperature, where during his research he became very good friends with Larry the Robot! When Ian is not busy at work, he enjoys surfing, gardening, and camping.
Lukas Brent
Research Assistant II
Lukas moved down to San Diego from the east SF Bay Area and earned his BS in Biology from San Diego State University in 2019. He developed an interest in plant biology during his undergraduate studies and joined the Busch Lab in October of 2019. Outside of the lab he enjoys activities like mountain biking, running, snowboarding, and visiting new places.
Hannah Carrillo
Research Assistant I
Hannah received her BS in Biology in May 2019 from San Diego State University, focusing on pre-medicine classes while also working as a medical assistant for special needs children. After completion of her B.S., she went on to receive her MS in Biology at Point Loma Nazarene University, where she turned her focus to plants and their anatomy and physiology. During her time as a teaching and research assistant for plant biology labs at PLNU, she developed a passion for understanding how college students’ view climate change, and delved into the actions they are willing to take to mitigate its effects for her thesis work. Hannah then joined the Busch lab in January 2022 as part of the CRoPS phenotyping team working at Salk’s Encinitas greenhouse site, where she helps analyze root structure architecture using various phenotyping methods. Outside of work you can find her taking her two Australian shepherds to local beaches, hiking, trying new restaurants around San Diego, tending to her houseplants, and cooking.
Charles Copeland
Research Assistant I
Charles received his Bachelor’s in Geosciences from Princeton University in 2020, developing a passion for thinking about agriculture in the context of climate change. While there he used plant photosynthesis and hydrology model simulations to explore the dynamics of succulent plant water storage in stochastic rainfall scenarios. Charles joined the Busch lab in December 2020 as part of HPI’s plant phenotyping team. He is excited to help identify genes useful to carbon sequestration and developing climate-resilient crops by measuring root traits across diverse plant collections. Outside of work he enjoys gardening, hiking and snorkeling.?
Signe Dahlberg-Wright
Research Assistant II
Signe received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Smith College in Massachusetts before moving to San Diego. She worked in the pharmacology department at UCSD, focusing on lipidomics using mass spectrometry. She decided her interests lie in plants rather than biomedicine, and joined the Busch lab in September 2019. In her free time, she brews beer and cider and volunteers at an animal rescue.
Kimberly Echegoyen
Research Assistant I
Kimberly received her bachelor’s in Ecology and Evolution from the University of California, Santa Barbara in September 2021 before moving to San Diego. During her time at UC Santa Barbara, she worked in the Mazer lab assisting with their research on adaptive evolution in Nemophila menziesii as an undergraduate assistant and worked for the Biology Department as a laboratory assistant. She joined the Busch Lab in May 2022 as part of HPI’s plant phenotyping team. She also has a passion for conservation and marine biology and aspires to earn a graduate degree in the future. In her spare time Kimberly can be found climbing, running, and hiking.
Karyssa Miller
Research Assistant I
Karyssa received her BS degree in Biology from Seattle University where she worked as a lab technician studying Arabidopsis under strict nutrient conditions. She moved home to Long Beach, California where she worked in a COVID-19 diagnostic lab for 2 years before joining the Busch lab in January 2022. Karyssa joined as part of the Harnessing Plants Initiative team where she studies candidate genes that regulate root periderm development. Outside of work Karyssa can be found playing with dogs, volunteering at a cat rescue, and trying new restaurants.
Nolan Mitchke
Research Assistant I
Nolan received his Bachelor’s in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He worked for CASFS (Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems) on the UCSC campus to develop farming and agricultural skills in closed-loop, agroecologically-intensive organic food systems and was able to provide large amounts of produce to different groups of students that were experiencing food insecurity. Nolan joined the Busch lab in December of 2021 as part of the Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI) team and works primarily at the Encinitas Greenhouse site but is also helping to develop a Typha growing system to assist in the Coastal Plant Restoration project under the HPI Initiative.
Chad Morris
Research Assistant I
Chad joined Salk and HPI in August 2020. He is a graduate of Mira Costa College in Crop Production and Wine Technology. Specializing in greenhouse hydroponics and subtropical fruit trees. Chad was selected for an apprenticeship program under the guidance of Dr. Gary Bender. Where he conducted research on the different growing and irrigation methods of Pitahaya in San Diego. Chad is a veteran, who served in the United States Navy during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Lauren Ragel
Research Assistant I
Lauren earned her B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia while working as an undergraduate research assistant and, following graduation, as a lab technician for the Fritschi Crop Physiology Lab for a combined three years. She studied both the usefulness of carbon isotope fractionation ratios/CID as a surrogate for studying water use efficiency in soybean and carried out HPLC to determine pigment concentrations of historical soybean cultivars. Lauren joined the Busch lab in October of 2019 as part of the Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI) team. She is interested in locating genes impacting root system architecture and unraveling the underlying molecular mechanisms that promote the formation of recalcitrant polymers. In her spare time Lauren can be found hiking, drawing, painting, singing or reading.
Dawn Reynolds
Research Assistant I
Dawn received her B.S. in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology in June 2020 from UC Davis. She has experience in both field and lab research, assisting in ecology research as well as working as a lab manager and technician for a Drosophila lab at UC Davis. She joined the Busch Lab and HPI in April 2022 as part of the CRoPS field team working at Salk’s Encinitas greenhouse site, where she manages and processes samples for both the greenhouse and field teams. She aspires in the future to earn a graduate degree and work in land management or environmental and climate policy. Outside of work you can find her watching movies, camping, cooking, knitting, or tending to her houseplants.
Emily Shane
Research Assistant I
Emily Shane received her B.S. degree from the University of California, Davis in June 2020 in Biological Sciences with a minor in Spanish. During her time at UC Davis, she worked in the Kliebenstein Plant Genomics lab assisting with research into glucosinolate production and root architecture as well as her own independent project studying hormones in ?Arabidopsis thaliana.? Additionally, she worked as a Research Assistant in the Gold Molecular Paleobiology lab using bioinformatics to study ?Cnidaria ?phylogenetics. She also worked at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory performing horticultural work with hundreds of tropical and native plant species. Emily also has a passion for animal sciences and conservation. She is a social media coordinator for Orphan Kitten Project and has volunteered with the California Raptor Center at UC Davis, assisting with rehabilitation of birds of prey. She joined HPI at the Salk Institute in November 2020 working at the Encinitas Greenhouse on the phenotyping team.
Michel Ruiz
Research Assistant III
Michel graduated as a biochemist from Havana University, Cuba. His career developed mostly in Europe where he obtained a Ph.D. degree from the BOKU University of Vienna with a thesis on the roles of auxin as a key determinant of lateral root directional growth. He then moved to California with a postdoctoral research project on post-Golgi trafficking under the supervision of Georgia Drakakaki, at UC Davis. He joined the Salk Harnessing Plant Initiative in September 2019 as part of an effort to identify and characterize factors associated with natural variations in the root system architecture of different species. He loves to travel and learn new languages.
Griffin Van Amringe
Research Assistant I
Originally from Southern California, Griffin received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Colorado State University. During his time at CSU, Griffin worked at the Crab Lab, studying the gene regulation of molting in Gecarcinus lateralis. While simultaneously teaching organic chemistry as a lecture assistant, he fell in love with understanding the mechanisms involved in genetics and how the chemical makeup affects the interactions taking place. After working in the environmental consulting world participating in field studies identifying invertebrates and crustaceans, Griffin is thrilled to continue his passion for fighting climate change by working with plants in the Busch Lab. In his free time, Griffin loves writing and producing music, surfing, and rock climbing.
Gonzalo Villarino
Research Assistant III
Gonzalo earned his PhD from Cornell University in 2014. He then joined the Plant & Microbiology Dept. at NC State University to study ovule development. For his second postdoc he joined the MCDB Dept. at Yale to study epigenetic and DNA replication in Arabidopsis as well. Gonzalo joined the Busch Lab in 2019 as a part of the HPI initiative at Salk. He is very interested in understanding the molecular mechanism of root development.
Lab Technicians
Melissa Baez
Lab Technician I
Born and raised in San Diego, Melissa obtained her BS in Cell and Molecular Biology from San Diego State University in 2022. After completing an internship in the Cell Biology department of the local biotech company, Cibus, she gained further interest in genetics and molecular cloning for plant species. She joined Salk in January 2022 and works on the HPI Deep Rooting team, where she is responsible for genotyping and phenotyping, as well as running a “Transplanta” screening of mutant Arabidopsis thaliana In the future, she aspires to attend grad school and gain further experience in molecular techniques, as well as possibly study microbe-interactions with plants. In her free time, she enjoys going to concerts, baking pastries and playing Galaga at Dave and Buster’s.
Matias Gleason
Lab Technician II
Matías is currently pursuing his undergraduate degree in molecular biology and a chemistry minor at the University of California, San Diego. He was first drawn to plant biology and root development while volunteering at the Dubrovsky lab at the UNAM’s institute of biotechnology in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He is now interested in molecular mechanisms and machine learning. Outside of lab, he is an amateur mechanic, an avid reader as well as a film photographer.
Natalie Gonzalez
Lab Technician I
Natalie is originally from the Imperial Valley and moved to San Diego to obtain her bachelor’s in Environmental Systems, with a focus in ecology, behavior, and evolution, from UC San Diego. After graduating in 2019, she worked in conservation and habitat restoration for 2 years at a zoo and botanical garden where she gained a passion for plants. She joined the Busch lab and began working with the deep rooting team in January of 2022. Outside of Salk, Natalie can be found tending to her garden and chickens or hanging out with her two cats, Luna and Winnie.
Sean Jarrell-Hurtado
Lab Technician II
Born and raised in San Diego, Sean received his B.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity from U.C Davis. Before coming to Salk he studied intertidal microinvertebrates at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and spent summer field seasons surveying cactus communities in the Sonoran desert of Northern Mexico. Currently, Sean is using cloning to help validate Single-Cell RNA analysis of genes involved in periderm cell development within Arabidopsis roots. He is also helping investigate periderm development in Pennycress and is highly interested in studying the transcriptional landscape of the plant’s root system in greater detail. Outside of learning at Salk, Sean loves to drum! He is currently having a blast playing with local Taiko and Samba groups.
Kristine Szeto
Lab Technician I
Kristine received her BS degree in Biochemistry/Cell Biology and Psychology from UC San Diego. Kristine joined the Busch lab in August 2019 and has since been involved in projects pertaining to iron sensing in plants. She recently joined the Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI) team and is interested in learning more about suberin localization and synthesis as well as how root architecture and soil environment affect water uptake in plants. In her free time, Kristine enjoys hiking, swimming, cooking, or hanging out at the beach.
Ling Zhang
Bioinformatics Analyst II
Ling comes from China. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics and a master degree in Biochemistry at University of Nebraska – Lincoln. During working at University of Nebraska at Omaha, he has been active in aspect of bioinformatics by developing statistical methods. He started in the Busch lab in July of 2019. He is currently working on 1) image acquisition, processing and analysis; 2) Advancing statistical analysis of genetical and genomics research. In addition to programming and data analysis, Ling enjoys biking, soccer and photography.
Interns
Yosemite Caputi
Intern
Yosemite is currently pursuing an accelerated bachelor to master’s program in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Plant Biology at the University of California San Diego. She joined the Harnessing Plants Initiative in 2021 during the sophomore year of her undergrad degree. Now, her thesis focuses on discovering genes for increased root biomass thus higher Suberin concentration in the model Arapdopsis thalianaplant to more efficiently store carbon in root systems and slow global warming.
Ido Dinnar
Intern
Ido is working on his bachelor’s degree in Biology at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. After gaining interest in Plant Biology during a previous internship, he joined the CRoPS project in the summer of 2022 with goals of fighting climate change with plants. He focused on identifying genetic mechanisms that lead to sequestering more carbon in crop plant roots. In his free time, Ido enjoys nature, gardening, traveling, and making pottery.
Manisha Haag
Intern
Manisha was born and raised in Germany and obtained her BS in Biology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf where she first got in touch with the beauty of molecular plant science and how plants can be our friends and helpers. With the goal to specialize in plant science, she moved to Berlin to start her master’s program. She joined our lab in October 2021 for her thesis project with the aim of understanding how plants develop periderm cells within their roots on a single-cell basis. Using single-cell RNA-seq technologies and cloning methods for validation, she is eager to identify candidate genes that can be utilized to create plants that are equipped to combat climate change. Outside of the lab, she loves going on hikes, driving motorcycles, being at the beach, trying new restaurants, thrifting and exploring San Diego’s music scene.
Kane Wu
Intern
Kane is a recent UCSD graduate and majored in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. He is now pursuing his Master’s degree in plant biology, studying the function of iron in plants and working on the ami-RNA project to identify novel genes that would be useful towards discovering new iron-related pathways and genes. In his free time, he enjoys going out on camping trips, getting food or boba, and trying to get back into learning Japanese.
Lab Assistant
Larry the Robot
Larry the robot is the only Arabidopsis high-throughput seed planting robot in the world. He is also the only crowd-funded robot at the Salk Institute (http://www.salk.edu/robot ). He helps to uncover fundamental principles of root growth regulation and will contribute to save the world. Also, Larry is saving students and postdocs lots of time and boredom. Not surprisingly, he is one of the most popular lab members.