Metabolic Engineering in Plants: From Design Concepts to Applications

The Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Plant Metabolic Engineering is a unique forum for graduate students, post-docs, and scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to showcase their current research and exchange new ideas.

Plant metabolism is responsible not only for the food we eat, but also for many high-value chemicals, medicines, and materials that we utilize in our daily lives. At this meeting, we will focus on new research into plant metabolism and the underlying genetics and biochemistry that allows for plants to serve as platforms for production of valuable resources. Furthermore, we will explore how the mechanisms underlying plant metabolism can be applied to engineer production of plant-derived materials in affordable and sustainable ways. This GRS will emphasize recent advances made by early career scientists in plant biosynthetic discovery, pathway regulation, and metabolic engineering that contribute towards our ability to understand and benefit from plant metabolism. Additionally, a carefully-selected panel consisting of outstanding professionals from academia, publishing, and industry will lead a discussion with GRS members on their career experiences, and offer insights that should serve as a useful guide to younger scientists approaching the next stage in their careers.