Josephine Loricco Assistant Professor, Biochemistry |
Education
Teaching Interests
I teach biochemistry because I absolutely love the subject, and want others to love it too! No matter your scientific background, my goal is to break down complex, interdisciplinary topics into something accessible for all, and to illustrate how biochemistry relates to our everyday lives.
I particularly enjoy teaching laboratory-based classes which focus on giving students practical, hands-on experience in biochemistry, and involving students in independent research projects. There is nothing better than putting what we've learned from textbooks into practice, to solve real problems!
Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests
My research is centered around algal cell biology and employs multiple techniques from microscopy, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics. The overarching goals of my research are (1) to understand the origin and evolution of land plants, and (2) to investigate the driving forces behind the formation of membraneless compartments, particularly in plants and algae.
Around 500 million years ago, a single green alga was able to colonize land, and give rise to the impressive diversity of land plants that we see today. Streptophyte algae (sometimes called Charophytes), particularly those belonging to the Zygnematophyceae, are the most closely related to land plants and investigating these algae can help us to understand the origins of land plants. In my lab, we focus on the emerging model Zygnematophyte, Penium margaritaceum.