Xuyen Ha Le: The Plant Cell First Author

Xuyen Ha Le, first author of “The mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) complex mediates one of three pyruvate-supplying pathways that sustain Arabidopsis respiratory metabolism“

Current Position: PhD student in Millar Lab, ARC Centre for Plant Energy Biology

Education: Bachelor of Biotechnology (Hons), University of Queensland

Non-scientific Interests: Yoga, music, travelling and photography.

Brief bio: I started my research journey in Australian Center for Ecogenomics in the University of Queensland where I learned about environmental profiling using genomics as an Honour student. After working for two years in a government organisation I decided to change my research interest into plant molecular biology and metabolism. I received Forrest Foundation scholarship to conduct my PhD research with Prof. Harvey Millar at ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology. It is fascinating to me how proteins work together at the molecule level and that dictates all the phenotypes we see in plants. My focus is on mitochondrial proteins and how they are coordinated to allow the flexibility and regulation for plant respiration and energy production.