Mission
The mission of the Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) is to enhance plant resilience to environmental challenges including extremes in weather and to become a “Center of Excellence” for foundational and translational plant research aimed at stabilizing the productivity and quality of food and energy crops against climate fluctuations and uncertainties.
Purpose
Climate instability threatens agricultural productivity. Stabilizing crop production will require the development of crops that are more resistant to abiotic and biotic stresses including drought, high temperature, flooding, disease (bacterial, fungal, viral) and insect pests.
People
The PRI includes faculty, postdocs, students, and staff from diverse career stages and disciplines (biochemistry, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, microbiology, and pathology), with expertise in both model and crop species, drought and heat adaptation, plant-microbe and plant-insect interactions, microbial ecology, and genomics.
News
The MSU Research Foundation Helps Turn Spartan Discoveries Into Impact
PRI Director Sue Rhee speaks on the MSU Research Foundation, which has empowered groundbreaking research at MSU for over 50 years, creating an ecosystem of innovation and discovery that drives economic growth across Michigan and beyond.
Danielle Hoffmann Receives the 2024 Kende Award
PRI member Danielle Hoffmann is the 2024 recipient of the Kende Award, which acknowledges the best doctoral dissertation in plant sciences at Michigan State University over the last two years.
A Graphic Novel Plants Seeds of Scientific Curiosity in Michigan Classrooms
PRI Associate Director David Lowry is partnering with the MSU College of Education and teachers to bring the "Mystery of the Monkeyflower" into middle and high school classrooms across Michigan.