Recognizing Plant Cell first authors: Travis Lee

Travis Lee, first author of Integrative analysis from the epigenome to translatome exposes patterns of dominant nuclear regulation during transient stress

Current Position: Post doctoral research associate in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Ecker at the Salk Institute

Education: Ph.D, M.S., B.S.

Non-scientific Interests: technology, board games, 3D printing props and laboratory hardware

Brief bio: I first became interested in plant science after learning about the diversity of citrus cultivars at UC, Riverside as an undergraduate.  I pursued this interest, researching the role of autophagy in plant senescence, in the lab of Dr. Judy Brusslan at CSU, Long Beach, where I earned my M.S.  I then performed my Ph.D. research in the lab of Dr. Julia Bailey-Serres at UC Riverside, where I became captivated by the complexities of gene regulation.  There, I utilized a wide range of genomic methods to better understand the continuum of gene regulation from DNA to protein.  As a postdoc in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Ecker at the Salk Institute, I am utilizing new technologies to further deconstruct the complexities of gene regulatory networks.  In the future, I hope to lead a lab that can leverage my experience with bulk and single-cell genomic techniques for the identification of novel regulators of stress and stimuli responses to improve plant resilience.