Mendel Lane Perkins: The Plant Cell Author

Mendel Lane Perkins, first author of “Monolignol export by diffusion down a polymerization-induced concentration gradient” 

Current Position: PhD Candidate, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Education: MSc in Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

BSc (hons) in Botany, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

Non-scientific Interests: playing music, cycling, farming

Brief bio:

My interest in plants was fostered by growing up on a grain farm on the Alberta prairies and working in a horticultural greenhouse as a teenager. At the University of Calgary I worked first with Dr. Maria Strack on carbon cycling in northern Alberta wetland environments. My interested then moved smaller cellular and molecular scales within plants. That led me into my Master’s work with Dr. Marcus Samuel where we developed cold tolerance traits in the oilseed crop Canola. During my PhD studies with Dr. Lacey Samuels at the University of British Columbia I have worked to understand the transport of monolignols. I have had the opportunity to work with many lovely collaborators and varied experimental systems on this long-running project. While I have primarily worked on the cellular and molecular scale of monolignol transport, it is my hope that our findings will have applications in the development of bioenergy, bioproducts and the understanding of the architecture of plants of all types.