Zeeshan Z. Banday: Plant Physiology First Author

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Zeeshan Z. Banday, first author of “Friend or Foe: Hybrid proline-rich proteins determine how plants respond to beneficial and pathogenic microbes”

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, The University of Chicago, USA

Education:

Ph.D. Life Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

M.Sc. Biochemistry Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh

B.Sc. Biology and Chemistry University of Kashmir, Srinagar

Non-scientific Interests: Biking, white water rafting, swimming, poetry, enjoy time with my children Maryam and Issa

Brief bio: I was introduced to the field of plant-microbe interactions during the first year of my Ph.D. in Dr. Ashis Nandi’s lab at the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. There we showed that a member of Glutathione-S-transferase family has a role in regulating immune memory formation in Arabidopsis. After my PhD, I worked briefly as a Research Associate in Dr. Ashverya Laxmi’s lab at National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi studying sugar-mediated thermomemory induction by heat stress.

In 2017, I moved to the United States to join Dr. Jean Greenberg’s group in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, The University of Chicago as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. The Greenberg lab has been instrumental in furthering my development as a researcher. Dr. Greenberg has been an amazing mentor and has constantly pushed me towards independence- a great virtue to have in our field of work. In the Greenberg lab, I studied plastid envelope reprogramming during the immune response. We found that a large family of proteins called Hybrid Proline-Rich Proteins (HyPRPs), that reside at plastid membranes and other locations regulate immune, development and growth responses to microbes (beneficial or harmful). I am currently working in a joint project with Dr. Jocelyn Malamy and Dr. Eduardo Perozo at The University of Chicago, trying to understand the mechanoelectrical (MET) transduction in Cnidaria (Jelly Fish; Clytia hemisphaerica). This work involves using Genetics, Cell and Molecular Biology approaches to functionally characterize MET components.