Dean Della Penna, professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

C. Robin Buell, associate professor, Department of Plant Biology

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EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Two Michigan State University faculty members were recognized this week for their groundbreaking research by being named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Professor Dean Della Penna, in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and associate professor C. Robin Buell, of the Department of Plant Biology, are among 486 AAAS members so recognized this year. Both are on the faculty of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.

Della Penna was honoree for outstanding contributions in plant biochemical genetics and vitamin biosynthesis, and for leadership in altering crops to address micronutrient deficiencies in developing countries. Buell was named for distinguished contributions to plant and microbial genomics and genome biology, particularly in areas combining genome sequencing and computational biology.

Della Penna is a world authority on the biosynthesis of micronutrients in plants, doing pioneering research on vitamin A and vitamin E biosynthesis and using biochemistry, genetics and genomics to discover enzymes plants use to make them. He also has advocated for biofortification to the international community, leading to projects funded by international agencies and The Gates Foundation to improve the nutritional quality of rice, cassava and other foods in developing regions.

His research also illuminates how vitamins contribute to the growth and stress tolerance of plants, which could lead to plants that thrive in substandard environments. 

“What interests me in the research is that it is both an opportunity to perform cutting-edge research on important areas of plant biochemistry/biology and has the potential to positively impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide," Della Penna explained.

“I was surprised,” Buell said about her selection by AAAS. She’s been at MSU for just a year, getting her lab squared away and starting new research projects on the Solanaceae family that includes potatoes and tomatoes, but she’s already known for her work with rice genomics.

A notable eureka moment for her involved analyzing the centromeres within rice chromosomes, she said, a region critical for division of DNA in cells.

“It was the finding of active genes in the centromere, which until that study was considered a dead space. That to me was pretty neat,” she said.

Buell sees herself as a translator between technology and biology, sequencing genes, analyzing them and developing genomic data bases for access for other researchers.

For more information on Della Penna, click here; for more information on Buell, click here.

Della Penna, Buell and other new AAAS Fellows will be announced in the journal Science on Dec. 19. New Fellows also will be recognized Feb. 14 during the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago. Della Penna is a presenter at the annual meeting, slated to discuss his research on crop biofortification on Feb. 13.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Members can be considered if nominated by the steering groups of the association’s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members so long as two are not affiliated with the nominee's institution, or by the AAAS chief executive officer. Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the list.

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals.

Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.