DIRECTORY LISTING
Biography
E. Wurtzel, Ph.D., Professor & Chair, Biological Sciences
The Wurtzel laboratory conducts basic research on provitamin A carotenoid biosynthesis which is enabling sustainable solutions to global vitamin A deficiency for meeting the challenges of food security in the face of climate change. Most recently, the Wurtzel laboratory discovered a new enzyme which is essential for biosynthesis of all plant carotenoids, including provitamin A carotenoids. This breakthrough led to discovery of a new prototype function for heme proteins, uncovered a novel means for regulating carotenoid biosynthesis in plants, and redefined the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway in plants. In 2006, Dr. Wurtzel was elected a AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and “honored for pioneering research on provitamin A carotenoid biosynthesis and for organizing the first Gordon Research Conference on Plant Metabolic Engineering”. In 2012, Dr. Wurtzel was awarded Fellow of ASPB by the American Society of Plant Biologists for “distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology.” Dr. Wurtzel was honored in 2017 by The International Carotenoid Society as a Fellow of ICS “which recognizes members whose consistent contributions to the Society, the scientific community, and the general public demonstrate a commitment to excellence, leadership, and sound ethics”. Dr. Wurtzel has served as advisor for the provitamin A carotenoid improvement program “BioCassava Plus” at the Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO which is funded by the Gates Foundation. Dr. Wurtzel has served on the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Board of Trustees (2012-2018) advising in the area of plant biology in addition to advising generally in biology and chemistry. Dr. Wurtzel is serving a second term as Monitoring Editor of Plant Physiology, the most highly cited journal in plant biology. Dr. Wurtzel is active in promoting diversity and gender balance in the scientific community, expanding opportunities for young scientists and facilitating growth of emerging fields of science. For example, Dr. Wurtzel serves on the Gordon Research Conference advisory committee for developing programs at GRC conferences that address challenges women face in science and engineering. She has also served on the Women in Plant Biology Committee of the American Society of Plant Biology (2013-16) and previously served on the Minority Affairs Committee (2004-10). Dr. Wurtzel founded the GRC on Plant Metabolic Engineering in 2005 and the associated GRC Seminar on Plant Metabolic Engineering for early career scientists. Dr. Wurtzel served as Vice Chair and then chaired the GRC on Carotenoids and founded the Seminar on Carotenoids (2013) for early career scientists. Recently, Dr. Wurtzel organized a Banbury meeting at Cold Spring Harbor laboratory to discuss the potential of applying synthetic biology to agriculture to solve global food demands, which led to a Perspective article in Nature Plants. Dr. Wurtzel has been awarded more than $7 million in funding of research which has produced multiple patents and has been published in many high impact journals.