Office Address
1445 Gortner Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
United States
John Ward
Interim Department Head; Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
We are interested in the mechanisms used by cells to take up and export nutrients and metabolites and the physiological processes that depend on transmembrane transport. We study transporter proteins mainly by heterologous expression in Xenopus oocytes and electrophysiology (two-electrode voltage clamping).
Research interests
In my lab we are interested in the function of transporters, pumps, and channels in plants. These are membrane proteinsthat control the flow of solutes into and out of cells and cellular organelles. Our main focus is on metabolite transporters in the plasma membrane and their role in long-distance transport in plant vascular tissue. We use the tools of molecular biology, electrophysiology, and genetics to study membrane protein structure/function and transgenic approaches to understand the roles of genes encoding membrane proteins in plants.
Education
Ph.D., University of Maryland, 1991