Don't forget to join us THIS MONTH at PSNA 2026! You can meet us during PSNA at our booth where we invite researchers to contribute their enzyme data to PMN's database! For more info: go.wisc.edu/PSNA2026

📬 Our May 2026 C-SPIRIT Newsletter is out now! This month: the launch of a new Lab Spotlight series feat. the Provart Lab at UToronto, a KOPRI feature, a new member publication, upcoming events, & social media posts. 🌱 🔗 createsend.com/t/y-630438C3... Sub: forms.gle/hWQycasrts2m... #plantscience

We're excited to announce that the PMN article, "Plant Metabolic Network 16: expansion of underrepresented plant groups and experimentally supported enzyme data," from PMN members is amongst the most-cited articles published in Nucleic Acids Research! Read it here: bit.ly/4dEukez

The Application deadline for the SynBio Hackathon has been EXTENDED until June 8, 2026! Apply Now Here: www.plantcellatlas.org/2026-synbio-... *Participants will be reimbursed up to $800 for travel and lodging costs.

We are excited to announce the next Anhydrobiosis Research, Tools & Techniques Webinar! Join us June 11, 2026, for a seminar presented by Dr. Daniela Billi on "Survival Potential of Desert Cyanobacteria Under Non-Earth Conditions." Learn more and register: bit.ly/4uDLobX

Just under TWO WEEKS LEFT TO APPLY for the PCA SynBio Hackathon! Make sure to apply now! bit.ly/3QpF5Jr

Happy Fascination of Plants Day! 🌱 At the Rhee Lab, we’re fascinated by the many ways plants grow, adapt, interact, and contribute to a more sustainable future. Today, we’re celebrating plants, curiosity, and the science that helps us better understand the living world. #plantscience

The @rheelab.bsky.social is seeking a research assistant III to support the lab’s collaborative projects in molecular and cell biology, international and transdisciplinary initiatives, as well as carry out lab management responsibilities! #PlantSciJobs Apply now: careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc...

Are you interested in competing in a time-bound event where participants work to design synthetic genetic circuits to program plants with new functions? If so, apply to the SynBio Hackathon! Applications are due June 1, 2026! Apply Here: bit.ly/3QpF5Jr

We had a great time at the 2026 MSU Plant Resilience Institute All-Hands Retreat & 10th Anniversary! 🌿 From posters and flash talks to trivia and bingo, it was an incredible chance to connect with such a passionate community. Excited for what’s ahead in PRI’s next decade! #plantscience

🎉 Congrats to Rhee Lab grad student Erin Cushing on earning a Paul Taylor Endowment Award from MSU Plant Biology! This award funds travel for conferences and opportunities to learn new research techniques. 🌱 Way to go, Erin! #PlantScience

Happy #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay! We’re celebrating the dedicated professionals behind the MSU Plant Resilience Institute across project management, communications, outreach, finance, operations, and germplasm curation. Your work keeps PRI and its center-level grants thriving. Thank you! 🌱

Happy Earth Day! 🌱🌍 A more sustainable future starts with resilient plants—that’s why C-SPIRIT connects global teams to drive plant innovation and resilience. #EarthDay #PlantScience

Are you interested in competing in a time-bound event where participants work to design synthetic genetic circuits to program plants with new functions? If so, apply to the SynBio Hackathon! Applications are due June 1, 2026! Apply Here: bit.ly/3QpF5Jr

We’re hiring a Research Assistant III/S in the Rhee Lab @ MSU 🌱🔬 Work on plant resilience using molecular biology + advanced imaging in a collaborative lab. Apply: careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc... Closes April 21 (may re-open late April/early May). If closed, reach out by email. #plantscience

Last week, PCA's Dr. Sue Rhee gave a talk on "Understanding and engineering drought resilience in sorghum using modeling and single-cell omics” hosted at the PCA SoCal Single Cell Retreat at the University of California, Riverside! @rheelab.bsky.social

🎉 New publication! Congrats to Rhee Lab members Evan Saldivar, Bo Xue, Sue Rhee & colleagues on their Plant Direct paper. In their paper, they present SPLASH, a method that identifies gene regulation from RNA-seq without a reference genome. 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/pld3... #PlantScience

We would like to welcome to the lab Yingtao Li, a visiting postdoc from the University of Tsukuba! Dr. Li will be with the Rhee lab for the next year working with @c-spirit.org. After arriving last night, Dr. Li is already making a difference at #MSUSciFest showcasing how crops defend themselves.

Rhee Lab member Karine Prado leads our booth at MSU Sci-Fest on Exploring Growth and Self-Recycling with Corn! Come check it out and get your own colorful glass-gem Indian corn kernels to grow at home! @msuscifest.bsky.social #PlantScience

We're back at Michigan State University's Science Festival with our popular interactive activity, "Why Do Bananas Smell So Good? How Plants Make Themselves A-Peeling!" Come stop by the MSU STEM Teaching & Learning Facility, Room 2202 today until 4pm & tomorrow, 11am-4pm! @msuscifest.bsky.social

Rhee Lab members Natalie Pitts, Ryan Brener, and Aidan Deneen are representing @waliianhydro.bsky.social at this year's MSU SciFest!

The MSU SciFest STEAM Expo Days are this weekend! Join the Rhee Lab in the STEM Teaching & Learning Facility April 11-12 to participate in our interactive booth "Exploring Growth and Self-Recycling with Corn!" Learn about autophagy in maize & take home colorful kernels 🌽 #plantscience

We’re hiring a Research Assistant III/S in the Rhee Lab @ MSU 🌱🔬 Work on plant resilience using molecular biology + advanced imaging in a collaborative lab. Apply: careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc... Closes April 21 (may re-open late April/early May). If closed, reach out by email. #plantscience

MSU's plant science community is set to flourish at the 2026 #MSUSciFest STEAM Expo Weekend, April 11-12! Join us at the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility Room 2202 for "The World of Plants," featuring 18 unique #plantscience activities: sciencefestival.msu.edu/Event/Tagged... 🌿🔬

April 7th is #WorldHealthDay 🌍 Plant health is easy to overlook, but it underpins our crops, food systems, ecosystems, and long-term human health. Our work at C-SPIRIT focuses on building plant resilience to support that bigger picture 🌱 #plantscience

Happy Graduate Student Appreciation Week! 🎓 Shoutout to Rhee Lab grad students for the work, ideas, and teamwork you bring every day 👏 #plantscience

Our Spring 2026 Newsletter is out now! You can view it here: createsend.com/t/y-5D55BBF5... Not on our mailing list? Visit our website at plantcyc.org to sign up!

📣 We’re hiring a postdoc in the Rhee Lab at Michigan State University! This position focuses on plant–nematode interactions and desiccation tolerance in C. elegans, with collaborative projects across C-SPIRIT + WALII. Come work with us! 🔗 careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc... #plantscience

Rhee Lab member Danielle Hoffmann will be giving a talk at the upcoming Water & Life Interface Institute (WALII) webinar on RNA extraction from seeds 🌱 Join to learn more about approaches advancing anhydrobiosis research! Register here: walii.science/anhydrobiosi... #plantscience

Now #Hiring! Join Christopher Topp's lab at the MSU Plant Resilience Institute as a project administrator supporting SYNCORNET, a new multi-institutional research project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E. Apply now: careers.msu.edu/jobs/project... #PlantScience #PlantSciJobs

The Plant Science Art Exhibit is now on display at the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences! This exhibit will be up for the rest of the semester to engage students and inform them about the history and potential of plant science! Learn more about the exhibit: bit.ly/4byqtQo

MSU PRI faculty member Addie Thompson has been named the recipient of the 2026 M. Rhoades Early-Career Award from the Maize Genetics Cooperation, recognizing outstanding contributions to maize genetics research! 🌽 Read the full story: plantresilience.msu.edu/pri-news/202... #MGM2026 #PlantScience

PCA's Computation, Modeling, & AI Committee is happy to announce their two-part speaker series, highlighting recent advances in AI-driven tools for single-cell datasets happening May 4 and May 11, 2026 (12:00pm ET / 11:00am CT / 9:00am PT)! Learn More: bit.ly/4cTuGPH

Join the Rhee Lab @ the 2026 MSU Science Festival! Our activity: Exploring Growth and Self-Recycling with Corn! 🌽 📅 April 11–12 | 11–4 PM ET 📍 Room 2202 See how corn grows & “recycles” itself, and grab colorful kernels! Learn more: sciencefestival.msu.edu/Event/View/45 #MSUSciFest #plantscience

We're excited to share that Rhee Lab member Karine Prado (MSU) will be presenting her research on thermo-adaptation in Death Valley at the BioEM Talks webinar on March 19 at 11 AM EDT! 🌵 Learn more and register: www.bioemtalks.org/march-19-2026 #plantscience

🍄 Rhee Lab member Matt Stata is featured in East Lansing Info! We’re excited to see @mattstata.bsky.social in “Do You Know the Mushroom Man?”, which explores his passion for cultivating gourmet mushrooms like oyster & lion’s mane. 🔬 Read more: eastlansinginfo.news/east-lansing... #plantscience

🎉 Congratulations to Rhee Lab member Dr. Evan Saldivar on defending his PhD dissertation "Discovery of novel molecular players in the adaptive response to nitrogen deprivation in two divergent model photoautotrophs" on March 2nd at Stanford Biology! We are so proud of you, Evan! 👏 #plantscience

Don't forget to register for the second installment of the Plant Cell Atlas Imaging Workshop Series: Introduction to 2D and 3D Segmentation with MorphoGraphX! You can learn more and register here: plantcellatlas.org/events

This week, Rhee Lab members Charles, Aidan, Katie, and Barno from Michigan State University joined Glencairn Elementary’s Science Night, sharing hands-on activities about plant growth, chemistry, and molecular models with curious young scientists! 🔬🌱 #plantscience

An amazing year full of excitement, adventures, travels, and networking. Great people at all levels and places. Looking forward to another exciting year in 2026! A huge thanks to Maricar and Ashley for an amazing job coordinating and promoting C-SPIRIT. I couldn't have asked for a better team!

The MSU Plant Resilience Institute's 2025 Annual Report is now live! PRI launched our NSF Global Center in January of 2025, and many of our C-SPIRIT members at MSU are a part of PRI, furthering the Institute's discoveries. Read the report: plantresilience.msu.edu/about/annual... #plantscience

Congrats to C-SPIRIT’s Karine Prado, Matt Stata, Charles Hawkins, Sue Rhee as well as their colleagues on their new manuscript! 🌿 The team shows how a desert plant rewires photosynthesis to thrive in extreme heat 🌡️ 📖 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... #plantscience

Plant scientists at the MSU Plant Resilience Institute, including @rheelab.bsky.social, stand ready to meet the challenge of improving global food security. Read more about how MSU is working to build climate-resilient crops: msutoday.msu.edu/news/2025/10... #SpartansWill #PlantResilience

New research out of Death Valley from @rheelab.bsky.social! 🏜️ Learn how one desert plant beats the heat through photosynthetic acclimation in their @currentbiology.bsky.social paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #PlantScience #PlantResilience

From growing smaller leaves to shape-shifting its insides, a desert flowering plant goes all in to flourish in the harshest of conditions. ☀️ Learn how in this @sciencenews.bsky.social story about the remarkable research of Dr. Karine Prado from @rheelab.bsky.social. #PlantScience #PlantResilience

Our new paper in Current Biology is getting some media attention: Our Current Biology paper is getting some media attention. Congrats to our senior research associate Karine Prado! Here's a piece from Science News: www.sciencenews.org/article/deat...

@jpmsantiago.bsky.social @rheelab.bsky.social

Very exciting discovery from Hatem's lab. Happy to have been a contributor!

Very exciting discovery with @msupri.bsky.social's Hatem Rouached and @msupri.bsky.social's @msubrandizzilab.bsky.social labs

👏 Congrats to C-SPIRIT member Tae-Jin Oh (Sun Moon University) & colleagues on their new Archives of Biochemistry & Biophysics paper! They discovered CYP107E41, a novel enzyme advancing green biocatalysis, echoing C-SPIRIT’s mission for sustainable ag. 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ab... #plantscience