Natasha Raikhel

Natasha Raikhel received her M.S. in Biology in 1970 and her Ph.D. from the Institute of Cytology in Leningrad, USSR, in 1975. At the University of Georgia, she conducted postdoctoral work under Dr. Barry Palevitz, investigating the cell biology of the chitin-binding lectin wheat germ agglutinin in wheat and related species. During her faculty appointments at the DOE-Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University, she developed a research program to study the plant genes involved in nuclear and vacuolar protein sorting in Arabidopsis thaliana. She has served on numerous government and industry advisory boards and several editorial boards, serving as Editor-in-Chief of Plant Physiology from 2000-2005. She moved to the University of California at Riverside (UCR) in January 2002 and is currently the Director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology (CEPCEB). She is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow and recipient in 2002 of the ASCB Women in Cell Biology Senior Achievement Award from the American Society of Cell Biology and in 2004, of the ASPB Stephen Hales Prize. Research in her laboratory is presently focused on understanding the fundamental principles of vacuolar biogenesis and protein trafficking through the secretory system and on elucidation of the components that mediate cell wall biosynthesis in plants.

This page last modified on February 19, 2006