Faculty Profiles

Prof. Schroeder pioneered the identification and characterization of many of the known major ion channel classes in plants and identified key ion channel regulation mechanisms. He developed the model for how these different plant ion channels function within a network towards controlling plant cell responses, in particular stomatal guard cell signal transduction, which regulates gas exchange and water loss from plants. His laboratory’s research also led to discovery of the HKT transporter genes, characterized their biophysical properties and discovered their functions in mediating salinity tolerance in Arabidopsis. This has led to breeders to molecular HKT marker-assisted breeding to enhance salinity tolerance in crops in the field. Julian Schroeder’s recent research is elucidating the ion channel regulation and signal transduction mechanisms and network that mediate resistance to drought in plants. Plants lose 95% of their water via stomatal pores. His research is elucidating the signal transduction mechanisms and network mechanisms in stomatal guard cells that mediate ion channel regulation in response to the drought stress hormone abscisic acid leading to stomatal closing and reduced water loss of plants. His recent research has further identified molecular and biophysical mechanisms by which the continuing elevation in the atmospheric CO2 concentration regulates guard cell ion channels, plant water loss and leaf heat stress.

Capsule Bio:

Dr. Schroeder is a Profesor of Biological Sciences at UCSD.  He is the current Director of Plant Systems Biology at the UCSD Salk GERT Graduate Program, as well as the Co-Director of the Center for Food and Fuel for the 21st Century.  He is the President Elect of the American Society of Plant Biology (ASPB) and on their Executive and Program Committees.  Prof. Schroeder did his PhD research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry with Erwin Neher and was a von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at UCLA School of Medicine. He received awards, including the Presidential Young Investigator Award (NSF), the ASPB Charles Albert Shull Award (1997), a DFG Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Prize, the Blasker Award in Environmental Science, is Churchill Overseas Fellow at Cambridge University and with collaborators shared the Cozzarelli Prize from PNAS (2010) and a top 10 breakthrough of the year selected by Science (2009). He has served on several advisory boards, is Co-Director of the Food and Fuel for the 21stCentury Center. He was von Humboldt Fellow at the MPI for Biochemistry, visiting Professor at the ETH Zurich and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of AAAS.