Katie M. Murphy: Plant Physiology First Author

Katie M. Murphy, first author of “A dolabralexin-deficient mutant provides insight into specialized diterpenoid metabolism in maize”

Current Position: Director of Phenotyping & Principal Investigator, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Education: PhD in Plant Biology from UC Davis, BS in Chemistry from Stanford University

Non-scientific Interests: Quilting and following Formula 1 racing

Brief bio: 

As the Danforth Center Director of Phenotyping, I manage our controlled environment and field phenotyping facility, where we run large, high-throughput phenotyping experiments to help internal and external research groups answer questions about plant phenotypes. In addition to running our facility, my research team applies image-based phenotyping to understand how maize responds to heat stress, which builds upon my graduate research on maize diterpenoids in Dr. Philipp Zerbe’s lab and my postdoctoral work in Dr. Malia Gehan and Dr. Doug Allen’s labs. Science communication is a passion of mine, and I share our work through my TikTok account @Real_Time_Science.