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Joanne Chory

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Joanne Chory
Chory in 2022
BornMarch 19, 1955
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died (aged 69)
La Jolla, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOberlin College (BS, Biology)
University of Illinois,Urbana–Champaign (PhD, Microbiology)
Known forPlant hormone biology, retrograde signaling, photobiology
AwardsGenetics Society of America Medal (2012)
Kumho Award in Plant Molecular Biology (2004)
Scientific American 50: Research Leader in Agriculture (2003)
L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2000)
American Society of Plant Biologists, Charles Albert Schull Award (1995)
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2018)
Gruber Prize in Genetics (2018)
Princess of Asturias Award (2019)
Benjamin Franklin Medal (2024)
Wolf Prize in Agriculture (2024)
Scientific career
FieldsPlant Biology
InstitutionsSalk Institute for Biological Studies
Doctoral advisorSamuel Kaplan
Websitehttp://www.salk.edu/faculty/chory.html

Joanne Chory (March 19, 1955 – November 12, 2024) was an American plant biologist and geneticist. She was a professor and director of the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.[1]

Chory was the founding director of the Salk Institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative (HPI),[2] a carbon dioxide removal approach to fight climate change by optimizing a plant’s natural ability to capture and store carbon dioxide and adapt to different climate conditions. Chory and the HPI team aim to help plants grow bigger and stronger root systems that can absorb larger amounts of carbon by burying it in the ground in the form of suberin, a naturally occurring substance.[3][4] Chory and the HPI team received a $35 million award in support of the initiative from the TED Audacious Project in 2019 and another $30 million from the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020.[5][6]

Chory's work at the Salk Institute, which she joined in 1988, pioneered the use of molecular genetics to study how plants change their shape and size to optimize photosynthesis and growth for different environments.[7][3][8] She held the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology and was an adjunct professor in the Section of Cell and Developmental Biology at UC San Diego.[9]

Chory was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society in 2011 and was the recipient of the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the 2019 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.[10]

Background

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Chory was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1955. Her Lebanese parents raised her along with her four brothers and one sister. She began her upper level education at Oberlin College in Ohio where she graduated with a degree in biology with honors. She then continued her post graduate education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It is here where she received her Ph.D.[11]

She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Medical School in the lab of Frederick M. Ausubel.[12] In 1988 she joined the Salk Institute as an Assistant Professor. Chory eventually married her husband, Stephen Worland, with whom she has two adopted children.

In 2004, Chory was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She struggled with the disease for well over a decade, but with the help of medications and a brain implant to help regulate her movement, she continued her genetic research. Along with her passion for genetics, Chory strived to inspire young women to become scientists and constantly worked to improve the field for women.[11]

Chory's early career interests were centered in microbiology. Through her research in that field she developed a deeper interest in genetics, specifically research that was being done on Arabidopsis plants. Through her lengthy career in genetics she was awarded numerous accolades for her many contributions to the field.[13]

Chory died from complications of Parkinson's disease in La Jolla, California, on November 12, 2024, at the age of 69.[14]

Career and research

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Chory focused her research on finding a way to optimize plant growth to sustain a growing human population. She used Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism, but her purpose was to optimize all plant growth and not just that of A. thaliana itself. She mutated the genes of the model organism and used the results to understand the effects that these mutations have. She approached this information from various directions including using genetics, genomics, cell biology, x-ray crystallography, biochemistry, and ecology. She made strides in understanding light sensitivity and hormones in these plants. She used this knowledge to optimize growth in other plants in hopes that the work will help sustain an ever-growing human population.[1]

Chory showed particular appreciation for manipulation of phenotypes of an organism.[15] Light signals are required for the induction and regulation of many developmental processes in plants. She participated in research dissecting this complex process by isolating mutations that alter light-regulated seedling development in Arabidopsis.[16][17] Her work identified mutants that are deficient in the phytochrome photoreceptors and in nuclear-localized repressors and also revealed that steroid hormones control light-regulated seedling development. Dr. Chory's lab has been involved in the manipulation of the biosynthetic pathway for these steroids that altered the growth and development of plants and identification of the putative steroid receptor, a transmembrane receptor kinase.[18] Her group has also contributed towards the understanding of chloroplast to nuclear retrograde signaling[19][20] and plant shade avoidance responses.[21][22]

Awards and honors

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Professor Joanne Chory ForMemRS". The Royal Society. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  2. ^ "Harnessing Plants Initiative".
  3. ^ a b "Joanne Chory: Professor and Director". Salk.
  4. ^ Hahn, Jane (2021-04-28). "Joanne Chory is using plants to save the planet". Washington Post. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  5. ^ "TED Announces the 2019 Audacious Projects".
  6. ^ "Bezos Earth Fund donates $30 million to Salk Institute for innovative climate change research". Eurekalert. 2020.
  7. ^ "Into the Light: A Profile of Joanne Chory". The Scientist. 2020.
  8. ^ "Ted2019. Joanne Chory: How supercharged plants could slow climate change". Ted.
  9. ^ "Joanne Chory". biology.ucsd.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2015-09-26.
  10. ^ IT, Developed with webControl CMS by Intermark. "Joanne Chory and Sandra Myrna Díaz – Laureates – Princess of Asturias Awards". The Princess of Asturias Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  11. ^ a b "Joanne Chory". HHMI.org. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  12. ^ "Joanne Chory". Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  13. ^ "Newswise: News for Journalists". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
  14. ^ "Joanne Chory, Salk Institute professor and pioneering plant biologist, dies at age 69". Salk.edu. November 13, 2024. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  15. ^ Bartel, B. (2012-06-01). "The 2012 Genetics Society of America Medal: Joanne Chory". Genetics. 191 (2): 297–298. doi:10.1534/genetics.112.138404. ISSN 0016-6731. PMC 3374298. PMID 22701045.
  16. ^ Chory, Joanne; Peto, Charles; Feinbaum, Rhonda; Pratt, Lee; Ausubel, Frederick (1989-09-08). "Arabidopsis thaliana mutant that develops as a light-grown plant in the absence of light". Cell. 58 (5): 991–999. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(89)90950-1. PMID 2776216. S2CID 39355835.
  17. ^ Pepper, Alan; Delaney, Terrence; Washburnt, Tracy; Poole, Daniel; Chory, Joanne (1994-07-15). "DET1, a negative regulator of light-mediated development and gene expression in arabidopsis, encodes a novel nuclear-localized protein". Cell. 78 (1): 109–116. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(94)90577-0. PMID 8033202. S2CID 42247168.
  18. ^ Li, Jianming; Chory, Joanne (1997-09-05). "A Putative Leucine-Rich Repeat Receptor Kinase Involved in Brassinosteroid Signal Transduction". Cell. 90 (5): 929–938. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80357-8. PMID 9298904. S2CID 17566573.
  19. ^ Susek, Ronald E.; Ausubel, Frederick M.; Chory, Joanne (1993-09-10). "Signal transduction mutants of arabidopsis uncouple nuclear CAB and RBCS gene expression from chloroplast development". Cell. 74 (5): 787–799. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.381.158. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(93)90459-4. PMID 7690685. S2CID 17781233.
  20. ^ Larkin, Robert M.; Alonso, Jose M.; Ecker, Joseph R.; Chory, Joanne (2003-02-07). "GUN4, a Regulator of Chlorophyll Synthesis and Intracellular Signaling". Science. 299 (5608): 902–906. Bibcode:2003Sci...299..902L. doi:10.1126/science.1079978. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 12574634. S2CID 15219589.
  21. ^ Tao, Yi; Ferrer, Jean-Luc; Ljung, Karin; Pojer, Florence; Hong, Fangxin; Long, Jeff A.; Li, Lin; Moreno, Javier E.; Bowman, Marianne E. (2008-04-04). "Rapid Synthesis of Auxin via a New Tryptophan-Dependent Pathway Is Required for Shade Avoidance in Plants". Cell. 133 (1): 164–176. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2008.01.049. PMC 2442466. PMID 18394996.
  22. ^ Pedmale, Ullas V.; Huang, Shao-shan Carol; Zander, Mark; Cole, Benjamin J.; Hetzel, Jonathan; Ljung, Karin; Reis, Pedro A. B.; Sridevi, Priya; Nito, Kazumasa (2016-01-14). "Cryptochromes Interact Directly with PIFs to Control Plant Growth in Limiting Blue Light". Cell. 164 (1–2): 233–245. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.12.018. PMC 4721562. PMID 26724867.
  23. ^ Wolf Prize in Agriculture 2024
  24. ^ "The Franklin Institute Awards Class of 2024 | the Franklin Institute". 30 January 2024.
  25. ^ Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research 2019
  26. ^ "2018 Gruber Genetics Prize | Gruber Foundation". gruber.yale.edu. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  27. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize – Laureates". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  28. ^ "Joanne Chory elected to the American Philosophical Society – Salk Institute – News Release". www.salk.edu. Retrieved 2015-09-26.
  29. ^ "Salk Professor Joanne Chory Awarded 2012 Genetics Society of America Medal". Newswise. January 20, 2012.
  30. ^ Friedmann, Lynne (May 26, 2011). "Research Report: Salk scientist Joanne Chory lauded". La Jolla Light. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  31. ^ "Joanne Chory Gets Kumho Award". www.cabi.org. Retrieved 2015-09-26.
  32. ^ "Joanne Chory, PhD | HHMI.org". Retrieved 2015-09-26.
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