Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Freddy Bunbury
Freddy Bunbury, first author of Physiological and Molecular Responses of a Newly Evolved Auxotroph of Chlamydomonas to B12 Deprivation
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the labs of Arthur Grossman and Devaki Bhaya at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford
Education: BA in Plant Biology at the University of Cambridge, MRes and PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Alison Smith at the University of Cambridge
Non-scientific Interests: reading, gardening, and all kinds of sports from skiing to kitesurfing, show jumping to pole vaulting
Brief bio: During my undergraduate degree I worked in the labs of Prof. Sir David Baulcombe and Prof. Julian Hibberd on virus-induced gene silencing and C4 photosynthesis respectively. In my Master’s degree I worked in Prof. Chris Howe’s lab on a pentatricopeptide repeat protein from P. falciparum, and with Prof. Alison Smith on algal-bacterial symbioses centred around vitamin B12 transfer. I continued this work for my PhD to uncover how C. reinhardtii, after evolving a dependence on vitamin B12, copes with B12 deprivation as well as how both its survival can be promoted, and its evolutionary path altered by symbiosis with a B12 producing bacterium. I currently work in the labs of Devaki Bhaya and Arthur Grossman on uncovering the symbiotic interactions that occur between thermophilic bacteria found in hot springs.
