Zachary B. Lippman (born 1978) is an American plant biologist and the Jacob Goldfield Professor of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory[2][3] and a member of the National Academy of Sciences[4] Lippman has used gene editing technology to investigate the control of fruit production in various crops.[2][3] In 2019 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and in 2020 he received the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences.[5]

Zachary B. Lippman
Born1978 (age 45–46)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCornell University, School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SpouseShira Golan[1]
AwardsMacArthur fellow
Scientific career
FieldsPlant biology
ThesisTransposons, heterochromatin, and epigenetic landscapes in Arabidopsis thaliana (2004)
Doctoral advisorRobert A. Martienssen
Websitelippmanlab.labsites.cshl.edu

Early life and education edit

Lippman worked on a farm in Milford, Connecticut growing up where he grew giant pumpkins.[6][1] He attended Cornell University as an undergraduate, graduating in 2000. During his time as an undergraduate he worked with Steven D. Tanksley studying tomatoes. He joined the research group of Robert A. Martienssen at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where he studied the role of the DDM1 gene in methylation of transposons and how this process can alter the expression of other nearby genes.[6] After completing his PhD in 2004, Lippman was a postdoc with Dani Zamir at Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he studied genes controlling branching in tomatoes. Lippman was hired as a principal investigator at Cold Spring Harbor in 2008.[6] [5]

Research edit

Lippman's research group, collaborating with Joyce Van Eck at the Boyce Thompson Institute used genome editing to improve domestication traits in the wild ground cherry, Physalis pruinosa.[7] They targeted three genes known to be important in the domestication of tomato. The first gene made plants more compact and caused them to produce fruit in clusters rather than individually. The second gene increased the number of fruit produced per unit of stem. The final of the three genes increased the size of the fruit by increasing the number of seed compartments inside of each fruit.[8][9][7]

Awards edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Zachary Lippman, 2005 Watson School graduate, lives a "larger-than" life". 17 April 2005.
  2. ^ a b Joan Gralla (2019-09-25). "LIer a 2019 MacArthur 'genius' grant recipient". Newsday. Retrieved 2019-09-29. Zachary Lippman was named Wednesday by the MacArthur Foundation as one of 26 new fellows, chosen because their exceptional creativity and record of important achievements, the nonprofit says, hold the promise for more of the same.
  3. ^ a b "Zachary Lippman". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  4. ^ "2021 NAS Election".
  5. ^ a b Ravindran, Sandeep (2020). "Qn As with Zachary B. Lippman". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (26): 14624–14625. Bibcode:2020PNAS..11714624R. doi:10.1073/pnas.2010408117. PMC 7334562. PMID 32571941.
  6. ^ a b c "Zach Lippman Susses Out How Gene Regulation Affects Plant Phenotypes".
  7. ^ a b Lemmon, Zachary H.; Reem, Nathan T.; Dalrymple, Justin; Soyk, Sebastian; Swartwood, Kerry E.; Rodriguez-Leal, Daniel; Van Eck, Joyce; Lippman, Zachary B. (2018). "Rapid improvement of domestication traits in an orphan crop by genome editing". Nature Plants. 4 (10): 766–770. doi:10.1038/s41477-018-0259-x. PMID 30287957. S2CID 52919995.
  8. ^ "CRISPR could bring groundcherries to market". October 2018.
  9. ^ Greenwood, Veronique (5 October 2018). "Taming the Groundcherry: With Crispr, a Fussy Fruit Inches Toward the Supermarket". The New York Times.
  10. ^ "Zachary B. Lippman". HHMI.org. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  11. ^ "Zachary Lippman - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  12. ^ "Zachary B. Lippman". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2020-04-30.

External links edit