Zachary B. Lippman (born 1978) is an American plant biologist and the Jacob Goldfield Professor of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Lippman has used gene editing technology to investigate the control of fruit production in various crops. In 2019 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and in 2020 he received the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences.

Early life and education

Lippman worked on a farm in Milford, Connecticut growing up where he grew giant pumpkins. He attended Cornell University as an undergraduate, graduating in 2000. During his time as an undergraduate he worked with

Steven D. Tanksley Steven Dale Tanksley (born April 7, 1954) is the Chief Technology Officer of Nature Source Improved Plants. Prior to founding Nature Source Improved Plants, Tanksley served as the Liberty Hyde Bailey professor of plant breeding and biometry ...

studying tomatoes. He joined the research group of

Robert A. Martienssen Robert Anthony Martienssen (born December 21, 1960) is a British plant biologist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute– Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigator, and professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, US. Education Robert Marti ...

at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where he studied the role of the DDM1 gene in methylation of transposons and how this process can alter the expression of other nearby genes. After completing his PhD in 2004, Lippman was a postdoc with Dani Zamir at

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

where he studied genes controlling branching in tomatoes. Lippman was hired as a principal investigator at Cold Spring Harbor in 2008.

Research

Lippman's research group, collaborating with

Joyce Van Eck Joyce Van Eck is a plant biologist and faculty member at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, NY. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Section of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University. Education Van Eck attended Pennsylvania Stat ...

at the

Boyce Thompson Institute The Boyce Thompson Institute (previously: Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research) is an independent research institute devoted to using plant sciences to improve agriculture, protect the Environment (biophysical), environment, and enhance hea ...

used genome editing to improve domestication traits in the wild ground cherry, '' Physalis pruinosa''. They targeted three genes known to be important in the domestication of tomato. The first gene made plants more compact and caused them to produce fruit in clusters rather than individually. The second gene increased the number of fruit produced per unit of stem. The final of the three genes increased the size of the fruit by increasing the number of seed compartments inside of each fruit.

Awards

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

Investigator (2018) * MacArthur Fellowship, commonly referred to as a "Genius grant" (2019). *

, Prize in Food and Agricultural Sciences (2020).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lippman, Zachary 1978 births American geneticists American botanists Cornell University alumni Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Living people MacArthur Fellows Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences