Nutritional Sciences Noy investigates vitamin A derivatives called retinoids, compounds that are important for multiple biological processes ranging from visual function to regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation. She and her research team are studying how retinoid-binding proteins deliver their ligands to specific sites of action, and how retinoids regulate the rate of transcription of target genes. Plant Biology Owens uses physiological and biophysical techniques to study how plants regulate the utilization of sunlight in photosynthesis. Plants cannot shade themselves from the sun under stress conditions, such as drought or temperature extremes, that directly affect the capacity for photosynthesis, but not the capacity to absorb light. Excess light absorption leads to photo-oxidative damage and cell death.
Plants have several highly regulated mechanisms for dissipating excess absorbed light energy.
Understanding these regulatory processes is a foundation for engineering plants that are more tolerant to stress conditions. Owens's work is funded by the National Science Foundation's Biophysics Program and USDA's Photosynthesis Program. The worldwide database of protein three-dimensional structures is growing rapidly. But the ability of researchers to use this knowledge for engineering new proteins and designing new pharmaceuticals is severely restricted by the current inability to predict how proteins move. Even large supercomputers cannot cope with the immense complexity of the calculations required by current methods.