Research Interests:

Our long-term goal is to understand how plants evolved from simple green algal ancestors. Plants have achieved amazingly complex development to enable terrestrial life styles. To study how it began, we investigate developmental mechanisms of unicellular green algae, which will lead to better understanding of the ancestral conditions prior to the origin(s) of plant development.

Our laboratory uses a green algal model system, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to understand molecular basis of its sexual development from gametic differentiation to post-mating processes. We combine molecular genetics and comparative genomics approaches to systemically identify genes critical for developmental processes and conserved throughout plant kingdom.

Our laboratory is continuously looking for enthusiastic people who share interests in algal biology at all stages of their careers. 
Post-doctoral fellows trained in molecular genetics and/or systems biology are encouraged to contact us for available positions.
We are also accepting graduate students who follow their dreams in science. Students interested in joining our lab should send an inquiry with your CV and personal statement (required).
Undergraduates who seek research projects or want laboratory experience are always welcomed to contact us regarding available opportunities. 

Alex Worden (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute): New Marine algal model system
David Baulcombe (Cambridge Univ.): Green-specific epigenetic mechanisms
Olivier Vallon (IBPC, Paris): Molecular genomics tools
Sabeeha Merchant/Matteo Pellegrini (UCLA): Nextgen transcriptome analysis
Ursula Goodenough (Washington Univ.): Cell wall networks

Biological Sciences 2332, east end of the South wing

Cuvelier, M.L., Allen, A.E., Monier, A., McCrow, J.P., Messie, M., Tringe, S.G., Woyke, T., Welsh, R.M., Ishoey, T., Lee, J.-H., Binder, B.J., Latasa, M., Guigand, C., Buck, K.R., Dupont, C.L., Hilton, J.A., Thiagarajan, M., Caler, E., Lasken, R.S., Chavez, F.P., and Worden, A.Z. (2010) Targeted metagenomics and ecology of globally important uncultured eukaryotic phytoplankton. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107, 14679-14684.
 
Worden, A.Z., Lee, J.-H., Mock, T., Rouzé, P. Simmons, M.P., Aerts, A.L., Allen, A.E., Cuvelier, M.L., Derelle, E., Everett, M.V. et al. (2009). Green evolution and dynamic adaptations revealed by genomes of the marine picoeukaryotes Micromonas. Science 324, 268-272.
 
Lee, J.-H., Lin, H., Joo, S and Goodenough, U. W. (2008). Early sexual origins of homeoprotein heterodimerization and evolution of the plant KNOX/BELL family. Cell 133, 829-840.
 
Lee, J.-H., Waffenschmidt, S., Small, L., and Goodenough, U. W. (2007). Between-species analysis of short-repeat modules in cell-wall and sex-related hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins of Chlamydomonas. Plant Physiol. 144, 1813-1826.