Emily received her BA in Biology from Bennington College in 2003. Since then she has worked as a research scientist at MIT and the University of Washington. She was accepted the CMB program in 2007 to work towards her PhD. Emily joined the Tierney lab and investigates extracellular matrix proteins in the Arabidopsis model system. She is interested in how the function of proteins and matrix structure affects cell function. Emily grew up in upstate New York and outside of the lab she likes to read, knit, learning to speak French, and cook.

Research Interests

The plant cell wall is a dynamic and complex structure. It must maintain strength and support while still allowing for growth. In this way, the organization and the modification of the components of the wall are important. As plant cells grow and develop in their environment, they modify their wall. How does the organization of the wall affect cell shape and function? What causes plants to grow differently when components of their wall change? How do these changes in composition or organization change the way cells respond to environmental and cellular signals? These are the big questions that our lab is interested in investigating. To do this, we use the model system Arabidopsis and in particular, the root hair morphology to study how the dynamics of the extracellular matrix (i.e. the cell wall) affect cell function. We are particularly interested in two proteins that share a common proline-rich motif and are cell type specific. These proteins are designated ATPRP3, which localizes to the tip of growing root hairs, and ATPRP1, which localizes to the base. While they share a common sequence motif, we believe that their functions are unique from each other because they are localized to distinct regions of the cell. Mutants of these proteins have distinct phenotypes that also argue that they do not share a common function. Under our growing conditions, these phenotypes are robust and affect not only the root hair shape but also above ground development, like flowering time and rosette diameter. This suggests that the loss of these proteins affect root-shoot communication.