I am an Assistant Professor in Plant Biology at the University of Illinois. My research is focused on untangling the genetic, cellular, and organismal mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in resurrection plants. Resurrection plants are a remarkable group of phylogenetically diverse plants that can survive extreme drying. Despite the important insights that these plants could provide into how life can survive without water, many species are understudied due to a lack of genomic resources, the remote and rugged conditions of their native habitats, and challenges associated with experimental manipulation of non-model organisms. In the Marks lab, we take advantage of this underutilized resource to explore evolutionary mechanisms of desiccation tolerance at increasing taxonomic and geographic scales.
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