Maria Florencia Ercoli: Plant Direct First Author

Maria Florencia Ercoli, co-first author of  “An open source plant kinase chemogenomics set”

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar

Education: Ph.D. in Biological Sciences and a B.Sc. in Biotechnology from the National University of Rosario, Argentina

Non-scientific Interests: Camping, cooking, watercolor painting, and gardening.

Brief Bio: During my Ph.D. I studied regulatory networks controlling Arabidopsis root development and discovered my passion for plant genetics and molecular biology. I decided to apply this expertise to a different plant model, a crop, so in 2018 I joined the Laboratory of Prof. Pamela Ronald as a Postdoctoral Scholar. I am currently working as part of a team that aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the ability of small peptides to control plant development and plant-microbe interactions. My passion is to see life through a microscope; therefore, I approach this key research question from a cellular biology perspective, studying the anatomical modifications these hormones are causing in detail.