Motivation
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The societal challenges posed by a growing human population and climate change necessitate technical advances in plant science. Plant cells are fundamental organizational units that mediate the production, transport, and storage of our primary food sources and sequester a significant portion of the world's carbon. A comprehensive understanding of plant cell structure and function at a molecular level is essential to uncover the mechanisms by which plants produce the services upon which we depend.
Today’s innovations in systems biology, sensors and biosensors, data science and artificial intelligence, gene editing, precision breeding, and the microbiome position us to make unprecedented discoveries in plant science. However, the plant biology community lacks a complete picture of the location of molecular machineries within cells, their distribution among various cells, and their dynamics in real time. |
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Goals
The PCA will map cellular and sub-cellular protein localization patterns, track the dynamic interactions between proteins, identify the molecular components of cellular substructures, discern complete states and transitions of specialized cell types, and integrate these disparate data points in order to generate testable models of cellular function.
To successfully implement the PCA Initiative, we convened leaders from imaging, proteomics, genomics, nanotechnology, and data science to a Kick-Off Workshop to discuss how to best build this community resource.
To successfully implement the PCA Initiative, we convened leaders from imaging, proteomics, genomics, nanotechnology, and data science to a Kick-Off Workshop to discuss how to best build this community resource.
Milestones
Oct 2021: Spatial Metabolomics Workshop held - 122 people (68.4% ECR)
Sept 2021: Established the Fall 2021 PCA Writing Accountability Group (WAG) - 32 people (65.5% ECR)
Sept 2021: "Vision, challenges and opportunities for a Plant Cell Atlas" published in eLife
Sept 2021: "Recognizing Pioneering Black Plant Scientists in Our Schools and Society" published in Trends in Plant Science
July 2021: PCA Career Panel Event held - 54 people (79.6% ECR)
July 2021: PCA Slack workspace launched
June 2021: NSF RCN grant awarded (Award # 2052590)
May 2021: PCA YouTube channel reached 50 followers
April 2021: Spatial Proteomics Workshop held - 343 people (75.5% ECR)
February 2021: PCA email list reached 500 members
February 2021: Single Cell Sequencing Workshop held - 327 people (71.3% ECR)
February 2021: PCA Twitter reached 500 followers
January 2021: PCA YouTube channel launched
October 2020: Workshop Report for the 1st Plant Cell Atlas Workshop published in Plant Direct
September 2020: Call for papers for the 2021 Plant Cell Atlas Focus Issue in Plant Physiology
June 2020: PCA email list established
May/June 2020: Inaugural Plant Cell Atlas Workshop held - 428 people (70.4% ECR)
June 2019: NSF Workshop grant awarded (Award # 1916797)
April 2019: “Towards Building a Plant Cell Atlas” published in Trends in Plant Science
NSF RCN Affiliate Institutions
In June 2021 the PCA received funding from the National Science Foundation to build a Research Coordination Network (Award # 2052590). The goal behind this funding is to build a diverse scientific community that will set standards for generating and integrating large plant data sets, create high-quality resources and tools to advance plant science, and provide excellent networking and interdisciplinary training opportunities for early career scientists. Here we showcase the various institutions that our core network participants hail from. To learn more about the diverse scientists that make up the core of our community please visit our People page listing the NSF RCN Committee members.
