David L Herrin, OW Odom, Seongjoon Kang

David L. Herrin is currently Professor of Molecular Biosciences at UT-Austin. He first joined the University in 1988 as an Assistant Professor of Botany, after completing his PhD and postdoctoral training at the University of South Florida and University of Georgia, respectively. He studied chloroplast and plant molecular biology using Chlamydomonas, since he was a graduate student. The Herrin lab's research has been supported by grants from federal agencies, state agencies, and private foundations. Dr O.W. Odom received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Tennessee, and did postdoctoral work on the biochemistry of protein synthesis with Boyd Hardesty at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the Herrin lab in 1997 as a Research Scientist, where his background in protein biochemistry meshed well with Herrin's expertise in chloroplast gene expression. Dr Odom's knowledge of protein biochemistry has been instrumental for working with the Bti proteins. Seongjoon Kang joined the Herrin lab as an undergraduate researcher in 2008. After obtaining his Bachelor's degree in 2009, he entered the Plant Biology Graduate Program and continued in the Herrin lab as a PhD student. He received his PhD last year from UT-Austin, based in part on his accomplishments with this project. Indeed, Seongjoon's success in producing Chlamydomonas strains that produce single Bti proteins, together with his keen interest in providing a public health solution, have propelled him to continue working on this project as a postdoctoral researcher.

March 2016