People

Principal Investigator

Hengping Xu

Hengping earned his PhD previously from Peking University in Plant Biochemistry and recently from University of Oklahoma in Plant Molecular Biology and participated in multiple nationally and internationally funded research projects. He obtained a solid background in the study of plant biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, and the expertise in plant cellular isolation, protein purification, protein-protein interaction, molecular cloning and transfection in plant cells.

Sutton Tennant

Sutton is currently a Graduate student majoring in Plant Breeding and Genetics with a focus in Biotechnology. He graduated from the University of Nebraska Lincoln with a bachelors in Plant Biology in 2021. Sutton’s work typically involves molecular biology tools and cross-sectioning and imaging of plant tissues.

Sai Subhash Mahamkali Venkata Subramanyam

Subhash completed his bachelor's in agricultural sciences from VNMKV, India. Later he joined ICAR- CTRI (Central Tobacco Research institute) and worked on online fertilizer recommendations for tobacco-growing soils in India. With an interest in higher studies, he joined a master’s program in biotechnology at West Virginia State University and worked on aluminum tolerance mechanisms in plants using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Soon after completing my master's, Subhash joined Dr.Libault’s lab to work on his Ph.D. in complex biosystems. He is interested in harnessing various computational tools and machine-learning algorithms for analyzing single-cell genomics data.

Hong Fu

Hong graduated in Economic Management with bachelor's degree, but is experienced with managing plant growth in the greenhouse as well as plant cell isolation.

Rani Qaqish

Rani is a pre-med student in the department of Biological Science.

Sergio Alan Cervantes Perez

Alan is a Biochemical engineering from Autonomous University of Sinaloa and he obtained a Master and PhD degree in Plant Biotechnology. Alan joined the lab in 2021 after completing his PhD at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity from CINVESTAV (Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute) in Mexico. At the Libault’s lab he currently is working on single-cell genomics.

Md Sabbir Hossain

Sabbir completed a bachelor's degree in Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering from Khulna University, Bangladesh. He then worked in the Jute Genomics Research Project in Bangladesh and was involved in jute fiber transcriptomics to uncover the genetic mechanisms of jute fiber development. Sabbir is interested in comparative plant functional genomics to gain a better understanding of the molecular events that control agronomic traits.

Sandra Bensmihen

Dr. Bensmihen was hired at CNRS to lead a project on how symbiotic microbial signals stimulate root development. She uses approaches such as transcriptomics, natural variation (quantitative genetics) and reverse genetics.Her research interests encompass root phenotyping, crosstalks between symbiotic and hormonal signalling, root development in Medicago truncatula, and crosstalks between root cell layers (such as epidermis and cortex).

Sandra Thibivilliers

My work mainly focus on providing support for the Libault's lab members as well as developing new technologies in the lab.

Ian Meyer

Ian is a Scott Scholar student in the department of Mathematics.