Dean DellaPenna

MSU Foundation Professors University Distinguished Professors College of Natural Science

• MSU Foundation Professor, University Distinguished Professor

• Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Bio

Dean DellaPenna, University Distinguished Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, is an exceptional plant physiologist who studies medicinal plant genomics, plant metabolism and vitamin synthesis. He is one of MSU’s most visible ambassadors to the international plant science community and governmental and non-governmental agencies on the importance of basic plant research for increasing the nutritional value of plants for human health.

DellaPenna received his BS in cellular biology from Ohio University and his PhD in plant physiology from the University of California, Davis. Before coming to MSU in 2000, he was a faculty member at the University of Arizona’s Plant Science Department and then the Biochemistry Department at the University of Nevada, Reno.

He is currently on the editorial board of the Annual Review of Plant Biology and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.