Name Gloria Coruzzi | ||
Gloria M. Coruzzi (born June 28, 1954) is an American molecular biologist specializing in plant systems biology and evolutionary genomics. As Carroll & Milton Petrie Professor of Biology at New York University’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, Coruzzi studies gene regulatory networks controlling nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and root nutrient foraging in the model plant Arabidopsis. She also examines phylogenomic approaches across higher plant species to identify genes associated with the evolution of key plant traits such as seeds. This research resides in Pasteur's quadrant as scientific investigation that is ultimately meant to be beneficial to society.
Coruzzi has established 10 patents in the study of gene networks affecting nitrogen use efficiency. Her laboratory collaborated in the development of the software platform VirtualPlant (www.virtualplant.org).
As an investigator on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Plant Genome project she helped generate the largest genome-scale phylogeny of the seed plants, which allows researchers to explore the genomic underpinnings of plant diversity
Coruzzi is from New York. She took her Bachelor of Science in biology cum laude from Fordham University in 1976. For studies of the genetic code in yeast mitochondrial DNA she earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology at NYU School of Medicine in 1979. In a post-doctoral National Institutes of Health (NIH) fellowship, she applied molecular approaches to plants that contributed to the cloning of one of the first plant nuclear genes. As an associate professor at Rockefeller University, Coruzzi identified key genes controlling the assimilation of inorganic nitrogen into key amino acids used for nitrogen transport in plants.
Coruzzi took a position as a professor at NYU in 1993. Her lab has constructed of the first integrated genomic network used to discover and validate nitrogen regulation of the circadian clock in plants. It predicted the function of gene network states under untested conditions.
Coruzzi has authored and coauthored over 120 research papers [1] and served as chair of the Department of Biology at NYU from 2003 to 2011. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, NSF 2010 Project, NSF Plant Genome Project, the NSF Database and Information Project, and United States Department of Energy.[2].
Coruzzi was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005, a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biology in 2010, and a Fellow of the Agropolis Foundation in 2012. She currently serves on the International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium (IAIC) Scientific Board and the Scientific Advisory Board of The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.