Eliot Herman

Eliot Herman received his Ph.D. from UCSD and was a Supergrade plant physiologist with the USDA/ARS at Beltsville MD and the Danforth Center. He has served as NSF Program Director and as Science Fellow at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm working on biotechnology regulation. He was awarded the 2004 Plow Award from the US Secretary of Agriculture for his work on food allergies. Dr. Herman’s research interests are in the cell and molecular biology of regulating seed composition. He and Dr. Monica Schmidt created the first biotechnology spin-off from the Danforth Center, Agrius Bioforms LLC.

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Research

Altering Seed Composition by Design

One of the oldest and most important agricultural problems is how seed composition is specified and subsequently how it can be altered. Ever since humankind began domesticating crop plants, amazing progress has been made to increase seed yield but much more limited progress has been made in altering seed composition. The ability to alter seed composition by design would have profound implications for the efficient production of food, feed, fuel, and fiber. Current research is directed at understanding the processes that control seed composition focusing predominantly on legume seeds. This work has resulted in creating novel seed traits including low allergen content, fish-feed specific soybeans and seeds as a protein bio-factory for the inexpensive production of a myriad of proteins including, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and industrial enzymes, such as used for food processing and biofuels production.

Plant Cell Biology

Plant cell biology is a focus of the Herman laboratory. The emphasis of the research is the function of the endomembrane system in forming vacuoles and oil bodies. Using multidisciplinary approaches including molecular biology, immunology, biochemistry, and electron microscopy we show how the endomembrane system forms and disposes of cellular constituents has been investigated. Understanding the basic biology of how plants form cellular organelles is key to being able to engineer altered composition in seeds and other plant organs.

Other projects have included the study of the physiology of plants at subzero temperatures that impacts over-wintering survival and the productivity Spring crops.

Technologies available for license: