Lab Members
Dr. Margaret Frank
Principle Investigator
Margaret is a molecular plant biologist who is broadly interested in understanding how multicellular organisms communicate across tissues and organ systems, and applying this knowledge towards sustainable crop production. Margaret joined Cornell's School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) in July 2018. Prior to moving to Cornell, Margaret was an NSF PGRP Postdoctoral Fellow at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St Louis, MO, where she studied the dynamics of graft junction formation and graft-transmissible RNA movement.
Margaret earned her PhD at Cornell, working with Mike Scanlon on the evolution of shoot meristem patterning in early land plant lineages.
When she's not doing science, Margaret loves to run, travel, and drink coffee.
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Michelle Heeney
Ph.D. Student
Michelle is a PhD student in the Frank Lab and the Roeder Lab. She works on dissecting the underpinnings controlling and influencing long distance mRNA movement. Michelle graduated from the University of Massachusetts with two B.S.' one in biology and one in math with a concentration in statistics. Her undergraduate thesis work focused on floral morphology in grasses, under the guidance of Dr. Madelaine Bartlett.
Michelle also worked in the biotech industry at the startup company Inari Agriculture where she developed her skills of plant transformation and bioinformatics.
Outside of the lab Michelle has a passion for film photography and fine art.
Nicole Szeluga
Ph.D. Candidate
Nicole is a PhD student in the Frank Lab. She's working on re-engineering soybean flowers to attract pollinators, and ultimately enable soybean to take advantage of hybrid vigor. Nicole graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. Her undergraduate thesis focused on gene interaction for flower development in Arabidopsis, under the guidance of Dr. Zhongchi Liu.
Aside from research, Nicole loves ballroom/social dancing, Broadway musicals, and doting on her high maintenance cat, Bentley.
Brandon Williams
Ph.D. Candidate
Brandon is a Ph.D. student in the Frank Lab. He is working on engineering a biofluorescent reporter system in tomatoes that would alert famers to nitrogen and phosphorus-deficient soil conditions by performing a “three-step hijack” of the endogenous c-terminally encoded peptide (CEP) system.
His alma mater is the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland where he majored in Conservation Biology and minored in Chemistry.
His undergraduate research focused on elucidating the symbiotic relationship between angiosperms and pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophic (PPFM) bacteria.
Arielle Johnson
Ph.D. Candidate
Arielle is a Ph.D. candidate in the Frank Lab. She is interested in the connections between plant development and specialized metabolism. Arielle’s work focuses on latex chemistry and laticifer development in the genus Euphorbia. She did her undergraduate degree at Brown University, where she majored in biology and worked on imaging pollen tubes and quantifying soil respiration.
Outside of the lab, Arielle enjoys hiking, botanizing, playing musical instruments, and reading.
Elise Boisevert
Ph.D. Student
Elise is a PhD student in the Frank lab where she works to shine light on the inner workings of grafted plants. She studies what is happening on a cellular and molecular level as the plant works to heal and join together. Elise started in the Frank lab during her undergraduate at Cornell. Her undergraduate work included a focus in rootstocks and root architecture, and in heterografting solanaceous plants to track mRNA movement.
Outside of the lab, Elise enjoys kayaking, hiking, and hanging out with her cute dogs.
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Thomas Lonergan
Research Assistant
More to come!
Weiwei Chen
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Weiwei is a post-doctoral researcher in the Frank lab. She’s working on mobile signals from roots to shoots in Arabidopsis.
Weiwei got her Ph.D. in Plant Sciences and Biotechnology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics.
Outside of the lab, Weiwei enjoys watching films, finding good restaurants, and shopping.
Tian Gong
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Tian is a post-doctoral researcher in the Frank lab. She’s working on grafted tomato production under high tunnel conditions.
Tian got her Ph.D. in Horticultural Sciences from the University of Florida.
Tian is known to enjoy exploring Ithaca and eating Cornell dairy ice cream in her free time!
Vesna Bacheva
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Vesna is a postdoc who is working on developing new technologies and methods to study vasculartransport in plants. She is co-hosted by the Frank and Stroock labs and is supported by the SwissNational Science Foundation and the Kavli Institute at Cornell.Vesna holds a PhD in mechanical engineering and has received training from EPFL and IBMResearch in Switzerland, as well as Technion in Israel. In her free time, Vesna enjoys biking and yoga.
Ashley Bao
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ashley is an undergraduate in the Frank Lab. Under the guidance of her mentor, Arielle Johnson, Ashley has helped to image laticifers and cyathia in Euphorbia to study their development.
Ashley is majoring in Plant Sciences with a concentration in Sustainable Plant Production. Her love of plants stems (pun intended!) from many summers spent gardening and cooking with vegetables from her backyard garden.
Matthew Norman-Ariztía
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Matthew is an undergraduate research assistant majoring in Plant Sciences with a concentration in Plant Breeding and Genetics. He is interested in produce genomics and breeding, and wants to learn more about breeding and grafting projects look like, including learning more about what working in the field is like.
Outside of the lab, Matthew spends his time playing the cello, writing music, cooking, and going to the gym.
Guinevere Goldberg
Scientist in training
Gwenny joined the lab in November 2019. Since then she has provided her expertise in tomato taste-testing. She can be found joining Margaret in meetings, stomping in puddles, or enjoying daycare.
Past Members
Dr. Hannah Rae Thomas
Ph.D. Recipient
Diego Hernandez
Undergraduate Researcher
Paul Ren-Huang Chong
Undergraduate Researcher
Audrey Widmier
NSF REPS Intern
Jenny Probst
Undergraduate Lab Tech
Dr. Kevin Hines
Lab Tech
Umair Ahsan
Post-Doctoral Resarcher
Matthew Hecking
Lab Tech
Sophia Monroe
REU Intern
Nicole Hempel
Undergraduate Researcher
Allie Hermanson
Undergraduate Researcher
Yuanzheng Yue
Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Hamid Razifard
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Eliza O'Donnell
REU Intern
David Zimmerman
REU Intern
Kylie Shae Weis
REU Intern
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Kyle Griswold
Undergraduate Researcher
Jules Hart
Undergraduate Researcher
Alice Gevorgyan
Undergraduate Researcher & Lab Technician
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