Benjamin Cole
Biologist Research Scientist
Divisions
- Science Programs
Secondary Affiliation:
Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology
- Comparative and Functional Genomics
Biography
I received my B.S. in Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2006. From there, I went on to pursue a Ph.D in Biological Sciences at UCSD, where I trained in the laboratory of Dr. Joanne Chory at the Salk Institute, studying morphometric features associated with shade avoidance in Arabidopsis thaliana. I then undertook a postdoctoral position in Dr. Steve Kay’s laboratory at UCSD to study circadian and diurnal growth and transcriptome profiles of the model grass, Brachypodium distachyon, before taking on a second postdoctoral position at the DOE-Joint Genome Institute using genome-wide mutagenesis surveys to investigate root colonization by soil bacteria. I became a Research Scientist at LBNL in 2020, and received a DOE Early Career Award in 2021.
Research Interests
Plants are phenomenal in their ability to adapt to adverse conditions, harboring an incredible diversity of responses to environmental stress. I am broadly interested in studying exactly how plants interact with their environment, from their relationships with soil micoorganisms to their reactions to drought, light, and nutrient scarcity. At the Joint Genome Institute, my research focus has been on understanding how microbes can colonize plant roots, focusing on genetic components required for effective colonization. In addition, I am now focusing on how individual plant cells respond to their biotic and abiotic environment using emerging single-cell characterization technologies (scRNA-seq and Spatial Transcriptomics).
Recent Publications
Related News
How Plants and Mycorrhizal Fungi Cooperate
Researchers have studied both sides of plant-fungi symbiosis in one of the first cross-kingdom spatially-resolved transcriptomics studies to date.
Report from Second Plant Single-cell Solutions for Energy and the Environment Workshop Available
On April 29, 2021, Berkeley Lab hosted a second workshop to identify the most pressing barriers to wider adoption of single-cell sequencing and omics technologies, and to discuss solutions to remedy those barriers in order to drive discovery. The workshop report is now available for download.
Cole Named DOE Early Career Awardee
The JGI's Ben Cole is one of five Berkeley Lab scientists selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science to receive funding through the Early Career Research Program (ECRP). Under the program, researchers based at DOE national laboratories will receive $500,000 per year, for five years, to cover salary and research expenses. His award is for a project that will employ sequencing and molecular profiling techniques to examine the genes and gene-regulating processes underlying how individual cells in two prominent bioenergy crops – sorghum and switchgrass – respond to drought and nutrient limitation.
