July 2023. Or new manuscript about the plastid- and mitochondrial encoded proteomes and the impact of non-synymous RNA editing in Arabidopsis is submitted and also available at bioRxiv
July 2023. NSF has funded our new project entitled: DETERMINATION OF THE N-DEGRON PATHWAY AND ITS SUBSTRATES IN PLANT CHLOROPLASTS. We hope to resolve this (non-canonical) N-degron pathway in chloroplasts over the next several years.
June 2023. Our new manuscript describing the 2nd release of the Arabidopsis PeptideAtlas is submitted and available at bioRxiv.
April 2023 Our paper on ubiquitination in the chloroplast is published in the Journal of Proteome Research (JPR)
April 2023. Klaas gave a short presentation at the Open House of the new Cornell Center for Innovative Proteomics
March 2023 Pratyush, Claire, Marissa and Klaas attended the Gordon Research Conference (GRC & GRS) on ‘Chloroplast Biotechnology” in Venture, CA. Pratyush (GRS) and Claire (GRC) gave an excellent presentations.
August 2022 Our paper on the genetic and functional interactions between the chloroplast Clp chaperone-protease system and the PREP peptidases is accepted in New Phytologist
July 2022. Claire, Marissa and Klaas attended the Gordon Research Conference (GRC & GRS) on ‘Mitochondria & Chloroplasts” in Vermont. Marissa gave an excellent presentation at the GRC.
June 2022. Congratulations to Claire for her NIH sponsored graduate fellowship through the Cornell Chemistry-Biology Interface training grant.
May 2022. Our NSF project on CRYO-EM of endogenous chloroplast complexes in Arabidopsis is funded.
April 2022. We welcome Claire Ravenburg as new Plant Biology graduate student to the lab.
Jan 2022. Our new Clp trapping story in published in JBC
Spring 2021. We are now all fully vaccinated! Cornell is slowly returning to normalcy.
May 2021. We welcome Pratyush Routray as new postdoc in the lab.
May 2021. The Arabidopsis PeptideAtlas is now online and the manuscript available at BioRxiv
April 2021. It has been a long time coming, but the new Plastoglobular paper is now published at J. Experimental Botany
January 2021. Our review on Clp protease systems in cyanobacteria, plastids and apicoplasts is published in J. Biological Chemistry!
February 2021. We welcome Bingjian Yuan as new postdoc in the lab
January 2021. We welcome Sascha Boguraev, freshman at Cornell, to our virtual lab activities!
August 2020. Congratulations to Elena Michel for passing her B-exam and becoming a Dr!
May 2020. Our protease research is highlighted in Cornell Research at https://research.cornell.edu/research/regulating-protein-lifetime-plants.
January 2020. Our NSF MCB grant application concerning chloroplast Clp proteolysis is funded. Proteolysis, the breakdown of proteins or peptides to amino acids, is critical for removal of unwanted or damaged proteins and regulation of cellular processes such as metabolism. This research will provide insight into the role of the central chloroplast Clp protease system, consisting of protein chaperones, a protease core complex and several proteins involved in selection and delivery of specific Clp protease substrates. The outcome of this research will allow more rational protein design for stable accumulation of chloroplast proteins, thus directly impacting these applications. This project will provide training in proteomics, mass spectrometry, molecular genetics, biochemistry, structural biology at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels. Summer internships will be offered through our NSF-sponsored REU programs.
August 2019 Congratulations to our summer NSF-REU intern Siobhan Calhoun for her winning talk at the final REU Symposium held at the BTI. 
July 2019. Our NSF genome grant application is funded. Taking advantage of the Human PeptideAtlas proteome infrastructure at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle https://systemsbiology.org, this project will generate the first PeptideAtlases for Arabidopsis and other plant species, based on hundreds of existing MS studies from laboratories around the world, and reanalyzed through a uniform processing pipeline. These PeptideAtlases and their metadata will be used to address biological questions and hypotheses in plant biology. A postdoc position is available in the van Wijk lab.
July 2019. Our Opinion paper in Trends in Plant Science (TIPS) about N-degron degradation pathways in plastids in now published.
June 2019. Congratulations to our Full-Bright postdoctoral fellow Dipak Gayen for obtaining a permanent faculty position at the Central University of Rajasthan.
June 2019. Congratulations to our new graduate student Michael Miller for his Chemistry-Biology Interface NIH training grant fellowship.
May 2019. We completed nano-LC QExactive Mass spectrometer training and the new instrument is running very smoothly 24/7 acquiring lots of data.
May 2019. Our new in vivo CLPC1 trapping study in Arabidopsis thaliana is now published in JPR.
April 2019. Congratulations to Rei – with her approved PhD thesis and her new postdoc job at NIH in Bethesda.
April 2019. Our new study about Chloroplast N-degrons is published in FEBS letters.
March 2019. Our new mass spectrometer, nanoLC-QExactive is installed and our nanoLC-Orbitrap was send to a well-deserved retirement.
January 2019. Our review entitled “Discovery of AAA+ protease substrates through trapping approaches” is published in Trends in Biochemical Sciences.
December 2018. Klaas was named to the prestigious list of Highly Cited Researchers, which recognizes scientists for exceptional performance. Clarivate Analytics compiled its elite list of scientists and social scientists by analyzing papers ranked in the top 1 percent by citations for their field and year from 2006 to 2016.
December 2018. Our paper with the Sloan lab is accepted in Plant Journal, entitled “Extreme variation in rates of evolution in the plastid Clp protease complex“
October 2018. Welcome to the new postdocs Gayen Dipak (Fullbright Fellow) and Imen Bouchnak both arriving this week.
October 2018. Congratulations to Rei for passing her final PhD exam today (25/10). Excellent exit seminar.
October 2018. Rei’s paper on ClpP3 and ClpP5 substrate traps entitled ” Consequences of the loss of catalytic triads in chloroplast CLPPR protease core complexes in vivo” is now published in Plant Direct. Well done!
September 2018. Klaas gave the opening lecture at the INPPO Plant Proteomics meeting in Padua, Italy entitled : “Chloroplast Protein Homeostasis; complexities of N-terminal protein maturation, the N-end rule and protease networks” and a seminar at the 4th Plant Protease and PCD Symposium (VIB, Ghent) entitled “In vivo trapping of chloroplast CLP substrates”
July 2018. NEW funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support our work on the N-end rule of protein stability in plant chloroplasts. Whereas the N-end rule (different versions) is been identified to operate within prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, an N-end rule has not been established for proteins inside of the chloroplasts.
July 2018. BBQ and fare-well party for Hiro, Hiromi, Nazmul and Lisa all leaving our lab and either returning home to Japan, starting a new job or starting a PhD in the Netherlands! Sorry to see you all leave after a great time here in Plant Biology.
Summer 2018 – Conference time. Elena and Nazmul drove to Montreal to participate in the annual ASPB conference and Klaas traveled to Italy for the Gordon Conference on ‘Mitochondria and Chloroplasts‘ . Elena presented a poster entitled “Plastoglobules: chloroplast lipoprotein micro-compartments involved in isoprenoid metabolism“. Nazmul presented a poster and short talk entitled ” Functions and genetic interactions of chloroplast glutamyl endopeptidase (CGEP)“. Klaas gave an invited talk entitled “Chloroplast protein maturation and proteolysis“.
May 2018. Congratulations to Elena for her award for Excellence in Leadership from Cornell. She received the award for her consistent and sustained ability to improve the graduate and professional student experience through leadership activities.
19 March 2018. Congratulation to Giulia for her award from Engaged Cornell to connect Cornell students in her Medical Ethnobotany class (PLBIO 2100) with the Chief Sam George of the Cayuga Nation.
18 March 2018. Klaas gave a talk entitled “Complexities of N-terminal protein maturation and stability in chloroplasts” at the Plant-Omics session of the 255th American Chemical Society National meeting in New Orleans.
9 March 2018. Hiro (Professor Ishida) gave a great seminar entitled “Autophagy and nutrient recycling in plants” at Cornell.
3 March 2018. Happy Birthday Lisa! Ouderwetse appeltaart and vegan brownie
1 February 2018. Welcome to Lisa from the University of Amsterdam. Lisa will be doing a master project on testing for an N-end rule of protein stability in the chloroplast.
25 January 2018. Congratulations to Nazmul for winning a travel award from the American Society of Plant Biologist (ASPB) to attend the 2018 annual ASPB meeting in July in Montreal.
28 January 2018. We toast to Cyrille who is leaving our lab after a postdoc sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). His projects on chloroplast N-degrons and ClpC substrates will be published soon!
16 December 2017. Lab end-of-year brunch in Forest Home.
November 2017. Our Arabidopsis chloroplast and mitochondrial peptidase network is finally published in The Plant Cell. The annotation and classification of more than 600 peptidases in Arabidopsis is now also available through PPDB. We hope that this paper and annotation in PPDB will be a great resource for anyone interested in proteolysis and proteostasis in plants.
November 2017. Klaas gave a talk at the 7th Symposium of the Mexican Proteomics Society; ‘Mass Spectrometry Based Omics’ in Guadalajara, Mexico. Guadalajara is the 2nd biggest city of Mexico in the west-central state of Jalisco, a region famous for its tequila.
September 2017. Congratulations to Elden with passing your final exam for your PhD! And of course congratulations and success with your new postdoc position at the Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, in the lab of Assistant Professor Erin Bertrand, exploring the Marine Microbial Proteome.
August 2017. Summer in Ithaca.
