Featured! Sonia Evans is in the UTM News
The UTM Biology Department would like to take a moment to shine a spotlight on Phillips Lab PhD Student, Sonia Evans, as she is being featured in the UTM News this week for her groundbreaking research discovery in plant science and having the work published in the esteemed journal, Nature Plants!
Sonia has been making waves this year as this is her second published article of the year, she was the winner of the 2024 UTM Biology Roberta Bondar Graduate Student Excellence Award in recognition of her research contributions, and also recently successfully defended her PhD!
An excerpt from the article: "In her recent work, Evans sheds light on a decades-old mystery in plant science: the origin of pyruvate in chloroplasts (which are responsible for photosynthesis). Pyruvate is a vital precursor for the production of isoprenoids, amino acids and fatty acids. Evans’s work reveals that Rubisco, nature’s most important enzyme, responsible for fixing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, plays a surprising secondary role in supplying pyruvate.
This discovery not only redefines how scientists understand plant metabolism but also solves a long-standing paradox of the origin of pyruvate. Evans’s findings ultimately provide a critical link between photosynthesis and the production of isoprenoids. By uncovering how plants channel carbon toward these valuable compounds, her research opens the door to innovative biotechnological strategies for engineering crops with enhanced productivity and resilience."
Congratulations to Sonia on a remarkable year and all that she has accomplished! 🌟
