Pioneer Member

Gloria Coruzzi – I first met and became close friends with Pam Green during our tenure in Nam-Hai Chua’s lab at Rockefeller University. It was the dawn of plant molecular biology and studies of transcriptional control of gene expression was all the rage. During her post-doc in Nam’s lab, Pam made important contributions to the area of transcriptional control – along with a close group of colleagues in the Chua lab. Members of the Chua lab “family” are a close-knit group of colleagues and Pam and I bonded over our scientific interests, but more important was our personal friendship. When Pam was offered and accepted an Assistant Professor position at MSU in the hey-day of the Plant Research Lab, she told me there were enough people studying plant transcription, but post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA was a new understudied area in plants that she was going to explore in her own lab. At the time, I feared for Pam and her future – as I thought all the major control was at the transcriptional level – but with vision, foresight and outstanding science, Pam helped nucleate and lead the field of post-transcriptional RNA control. Indeed, we now know that post-transcriptional control of RNA plays a role in all aspects of plant and animal development. Pam was a visionary in the RNA world. I am proud and honored to be her scientific colleague, and as importantly, as a close friend. Supporting Pam Green as a Pioneer is an honor she most richly deserves. Fondly- Gloria Coruzzi