Parks wins Best Presentation at the Phytochemical Society of North America annual meeting

Michigan State University graduate student Hannah Parks won a “Best Presentation Award” at the Phytochemical Society of North America (PSNA) annual meeting on July 31, 2021. Parks is in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology graduate program in the College of Natural Science and works in the lab of her mentor, Cornelius Barry, an associate professor in the Department of Horticulture. The Barry lab studies biochemical evolution of specialized metabolism in plants.

Parks presented her project “Expanding the tropane alkaloid metabolic network: Metabolite discovery in Atropa belladonna.”

Plants make diverse compounds that humans have used as spices, perfumes and medicines for thousands of years. Parks is utilizing untargeted metabolomics to investigate the consequences of disrupting the biosynthesis of medicinally important tropane alkaloids. 

“Hannah has worked really hard to identify novel alkaloids and figure out strategies to synthesize them in planta and in vitro,” said Barry. “Receiving recognition for her talk at the PSNA conference is awesome and validates all the effort she has put in to bring this project to fruition.”

“It is thought that tropane alkaloids are important for plant defense,” said Barry, “but it is also possible that some of the novel alkaloids Hannah has discovered may have applications in medicine or agriculture”.

“I am honored to receive this award and for the recognition of our research,” said Parks. “I am grateful for the support of my mentor, my guidance committee, and our collaborators, especially Dr. Dan Jones and Dr. Maris Cinelli.” 

Banner image: The Barry lab studies tropane alkaloids that may have applications in medicine and agriculture in the Atropa belladonna flower. Photo: Hannah Parks