Reaching new frontiers of plant biology research, Federica Brandizzi

MSU Research Foundation Professor, Federica Brandizzi came to Michigan State University in 2006, when she opened a new lab at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory as an Associate Professor. She currently leads research on the role of endomembranes in plant growth, productivity, and stress responses on earth and in space. Since 2020, she has also served as Science Director of the Department of Energy Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC).

Since she established her laboratory at MSU, Dr. Brandizzi’s research has been supported by numerous federal agencies (e.g., NIH, NASA, DOE, NSF), with no interruption, as well as support from the MSU Research Foundation, and the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization awards to develop an exciting research portfolio in the basic and applied sciences, totaling ~$2M/year in grants to her lab.

The breadth of Dr. Brandizzi’s expertise is sought after by national and international funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, for which she has served as a Permanent Member of the Membrane Biology and Protein Processing Biology for a six-year term. Dr. Brandizzi is also Senior Editor for The Plant Journal, a leading scientific journal in the plant science.

As exemplified by her numerous publications (over 150 peer-reviewed articles since joining MSU), Dr. Brandizzi is efficient in building and directing effective and diverse research plans, identifying exciting research thrusts, securing funds, and managing large budgets. In 2018, she was elected to the rank of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow.

Dr. Brandizzi completed her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Rome, Italy) in 1997. After completing her PhD, she conducted two post-doctoral experiences at the University of Oxford, Oxford UK, and Oxford Brookes University, Oxford UK, to work on gene regulation and endomembranes in plant cells. In 2003, she accepted a prestigious Canada Research Chair to establish her first independent lab at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.