Q&A with Dr. Adam Steinbrenner

Abstract

Logline for carousel: Dr. Steinbrenner shares his experiences in academia, and navigating biology in a family of non-academics. He shares his experiences as an assistant professor and gives insight into his research field on plant immunity.

Subtitle for latest feature list: Adam Steinbrenner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington, USA. He was recently appointed as part of The Plant Journal Editorial board.

@ADSteinbrenner

steinbrennerlab.org/

Dr. Steinbrenner is a passionate plant biologist whose journey into science is as fascinating as the questions he explores in his research. Growing up with a love for gardening and identifying trees, Dr. Steinbrenner discovered his calling through transformative research experiences in college, which introduced him to the molecular tools and ecological complexities of plant biology. Now leading his own lab, Dr. Steinbrenner focuses on pattern recognition receptors and how plants perceive and respond to diverse attackers like pathogens and herbivores. With a commitment to understanding the evolution of plant immune systems and addressing the challenges of receptor-ligand specificity, his work is advancing the frontiers of plant biology. Beyond the lab, Dr. Steinbrenner finds joy in discovery, mentoring the next generation of scientists, and balancing a fulfilling personal life with scientific pursuits.

1. Can you tell us about you, your childhood, and your educational background? Anything that you're comfortable sharing.

As a kid, I loved gardening with my mom and identifying Pennsylvania trees. I did not know how it could become a career. Nobody in my family was in science or academia, so I remember being surprised and excited that there were research labs focused on questions in plant molecular biology.

2. How did you become interested in plant biology?

I had two important research experiences in early college. At Tufts University I learned about plant specialized metabolism and ecological consequences working with Colin Orians. A summer NSF-REU internship at the Boyce Thompson Institute working with Greg Martin introduced me to model systems and molecular tools. It was 2007, the year after the famous zig-zag model of plant immunity was published – I remember discussing the model with Greg that summer. I was hooked.

3. What are your current research interests?

My lab studies pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). We are interested in how these receptors perceive diverse attackers, especially chewing insect herbivores. We also want to know how signaling diverges coming from different PRRs, for example, PRRs that detect pathogens versus herbivores. We have built a model system based on plant perception of a caterpillar peptide (inceptin, also termed “In11”) mediated by a PRR called Inceptin Receptor (INR). Since INR's defense outputs differ from those activated by canonical PRRs like Flagellin Sensing 2 (FLS2), INR gives us a tool to analyze immune system specificity in terms of recognition of herbivores and downstream signaling.

4. In your opinion, what are the major challenges in your field? How does your research tackle these challenges?

Of dozens to hundreds of PRRs per genome, which ones are most important for resistance, and what ligands do they detect? This question is even more complicated because PRRs derive from extremely diverse gene families, and very few are conserved across all plant lineages. For example, our model receptor INR is only present in a single group of related legume species. This limited distribution of INR has led us to ask how new PRR recognition functions evolve over longer evolutionary timescales (10–100 my). We apply a phylogenomic perspective to this problem, looking for conserved versus lineage-specific clades of PRRs. We also try to understand key transitions in recognition functions, both within and across clades of receptors.

One short-term challenge is to scale up methods to test receptor-ligand specificity. We are building test systems in plants, heterologous model systems, and in silico methods. If we have enough individual data points regarding receptor-ligand specificity this will build our ability to predict PRR functions from sequence information alone.

5. How about work–life balance? How do you manage all the work necessary to be both a successful scientist and a functional person?

I'm lucky that work is almost always a source of energy and joy for me. I don't think a see-saw is the right metaphor. The rest of my life is better when I am productive and engaged in my science, and vice versa. Momentum in one pursuit (like hard runs while training for a race) can build my energy in totally unrelated areas.

I prefer the metaphor of filling a jar full of rocks, where you need to prioritize adding large rocks first for everything else to fit. Family, friends, and health are the large rocks that I prioritize. Other large rocks are the projects that I know I'll remember 5+ years from now: interacting with mentors and mentees, preparing major papers/grants, a critical experiment, planning a new class for students, reading or handling important papers, or keeping exciting side projects on the table.

As an assistant professor I found it was easy to load up on small rocks, even if they were tasks where my control or impact is limited. It's important to politely turn down some tasks even if they might have some upside. Think about opportunity costs, especially if tasks are crowding out your time for reading and thinking.

I also recommend experimenting with different systems for planning your days, weeks, quarters, and years – an idea promoted as “multi-scale planning” by Cal Newport. There are many great apps but I mostly use simple Google docs/sheets and a free cloud notebook (Logseq linked to a Dropbox).

6. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Rarely (but regularly) we encounter a dream observation that totally confirms a research direction is working well, or maybe comes as a surprise and suggests a new model. Of course it's great when such an observation comes from our own analyses and experiments, but I also love when it comes from a talk or paper from a colleague. Big recent breakthroughs come to mind regarding receptors for volatile recognition, or tethering of host targets by pathogen effectors. The papers made me drop everything and read! It is fun to be part of a larger field and able to appreciate the awesome work going on.

Those rare moments aside – with my week-to-week job, I love seeing lab members' excitement when a project is taking off. It is also great to see their confidence build when they take on new concepts or protocols.

7. How about the things you dislike about it?

I do miss having more time to do the actual experiments and get a feel for assays and pipelines. I live a bit vicariously through mentees and their updates.

8. What advice would you give to young scientists who are starting their careers in plant biology?

Find experiments that you really enjoy – not just in terms of rote execution but also thinking about them, discussing them, and writing about them. Find peers and mentors that you like talking to. Keep track of active scientists on social media, and try posting. (I think the best part about social media in science is that it can be a low-stakes, regular form of writing.)

If a project isn't engaging to you that's OK, it might just not be a good match. Don't get too stuck on one topic or idea, and don't be afraid to discuss switching projects or even labs; you'll see new ways of doing science, and gain exposure to new topics and techniques.

9. If you were a plant, what would you be?

A coast redwood in a National Park. Sequoia sempervirens encodes 1372 LRR receptor kinases and receptor-like proteins! They likely have as rich a sensory experience as a plant can have.

Luis De Luna Valdez,

Features Editor, The Plant Journal

[email protected]