Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Sascha Duttke

Sascha Duttke, first author of Auxin and pattern formation of the Asteraceae flower head (capitulum)

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego

Education: 2015 – Ph.D., Biological Sciences University of California, San Diego, 2010 – Diplom, Biology, University of Freiburg, Germany.

Brief Bio: Sascha did his PhD with James T. Kadonaga (UC San Diego) studying eukaryotic transcription. He is now a postdoctoral fellow with Christopher Benner at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, UC San Diego. His work focuses on transcription initiation, which is a key control point for many cellular processes. Sascha’s research provided insights into how basal and sequence-specific transcription factors collaboratively interpret the genome to regulate the expression of thousands of genes, most of which have a unique program of transcription in eukaryotes. While aberrations can manifest in disease, accurate gene regulation is a hallmark of health and critical for the emergence of the manifold complex organisms we marvel today.