Plant Biology Lab

Securing the world’s food supply in a changing climate may be one of the biggest challenges we face in this century. In six of the past eight years, the human race consumed more corn, wheat, and rice than it grew.

Every day, 18,000 children under age five die of hunger and malnutrition. Almost all of them live in developing countries, the very countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Understanding the molecular underpinnings of how plants adapt to challenging environments and defend themselves against insects and fungal infections will be crucial to ensuring the world’s food supply into the future, making basic plant research more important than ever.

Founded 25 years ago, the Salk’s Plant Biology Laboratory is home to some of the world’s leading plant biologists. Their groundbreaking research profoundly impacts many areas of science, from agriculture to stem cell research, from tumor biology to drug development.