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Vivian Irish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vivian Irish
Alma materWesleyan University, Harvard University
Known forABC Model
Scientific career
FieldsFloral development
InstitutionsYale University
Doctoral advisorBill Gelbart
Other academic advisorsMichael Akam, Ian Sussex

Vivian Irish is an American evolutionary biologist. She is currently Chair & Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University.[1] Her research focuses on floral development.[2] She was president of Society for Developmental Biology in 2012 [3] and currently serves as an editor for the journals Developmental Biology and Evolution & Development.[4]

Personal life

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Irish was drawn into research from a young age when visiting the Boston Science Museum.[5] She has taught numerous undergraduate students at Yale University and focused on the importance of evidence-based thinking. She began working with Arabidopsis as it was becoming a model organism, serving as a "botanical Drosophila".

Education

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Irish received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University while mentored by Bill Gelbart. Her first postdoctoral fellowship was at Cambridge University, where she studied Drosophila with Michael Akam and her second postdoctoral fellowship focused on plant development with Ian Sussex at Yale.[6]

Current research

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Irish has been a faculty member at Yale since 1991.[1] In her present position as chair of the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology department, she helped to create a degree path for a Neuroscience major in collaboration with Yale's Psychology Department.[7] The Irish lab does work on plant development and stem cell proliferation in plants, particularly as it pertains to the formation and growth of a flower's petal.[4] This has also included research into the morphogenesis of thorns in Citrus, which was found to be related to the rest of lateral stem cells.[8]

Her work has been influential in the development of the ABC model of development, specifically with the genes APETALA1, APETALA3, and PISTILLA MADS-box genes.[9] Irish is generally interested in patterns and timing of development, which she has explored through fate maps and gene expression[10]

Awards, prizes, and honors

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  • 2019, Inducted into the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering[11]
  • 2012, President of the Society for Developmental Biology
  • 2011, Visiting Professor at ENS in Lyons, France
  • 1989, National Science Fellowship Post-doc
  • 1986, Jane Coffin Childs Fellow at University of Cambridge[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Vivian Irish, Ph.D. | Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology". mcdb.yale.edu. Retrieved 2019-09-07.
  2. ^ "Society for Developmental Biology | Resource". www.sdbonline.org. Retrieved 2019-09-07.
  3. ^ "Society for Developmental Biology | SDB Past Presidents". www.sdbonline.org. Retrieved 2019-09-07.
  4. ^ a b "Vivian Irish, Ph.D. | Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology". mcdb.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  5. ^ Irish, Vivian (2018). "Q&A with Vivian Irish". Current Biology. 28: R635–R655.
  6. ^ "People | Irish Laboratory". irishlab.yale.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  7. ^ Xiong, Amy (12 April 2017). "University to offer neuroscience major". yaledailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-03-08.
  8. ^ Zhang, Fei; Rossignol, Pascale; Huang, Tengbo; Wang, Yewei; May, Alan; Dupont, Christopher; Orbovic, Vladimir; Irish, Vivian F. (2020-08-03). "Reprogramming of Stem Cell Activity to Convert Thorns into Branches". Current Biology. 30 (15): 2951–2961.e5. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.068. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 32559443. S2CID 219944077.
  9. ^ Kramer, Elena M.; Dorit, Robert L.; Irish, Vivian F. (1998-06-01). "Molecular Evolution of Genes Controlling Petal and Stamen Development: Duplication and Divergence Within the APETALA3 and PISTILLATA MADS-Box Gene Lineages". Genetics. 149 (2): 765–783. doi:10.1093/genetics/149.2.765. ISSN 0016-6731. PMC 1460198. PMID 9611190.
  10. ^ Irish, V. F.; Sussex, I. M. (1992-07-01). "A fate map of the Arabidopsis embryonic shoot apical meristem". Development. 115 (3): 745–753. doi:10.1242/dev.115.3.745. ISSN 0950-1991.
  11. ^ "Yale faculty honored by Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering". YaleNews. 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  12. ^ "Former Fellows". Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund. Retrieved 2023-05-28.