Joshua K. Endow Joshua Endow received his B.S., in 2008, in Horticulture from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, USA. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Plant Proteases inhibitor Biology in the laboratory of Professor Kentaro

Inoue at the University of California, Davis, USA. Joshua is interested in how BI 6727 in vitro proteins are specifically sorted within the chloroplast to the correct compartment and orientation that allows them to perform photosynthetic and other functions. His dissertation study is focused on a protein called Plastidic type I signal peptidase 1 (Plsp1) that is fascinating both in its targeting to two chloroplast membranes and its role in removing the sorting signals of other proteins. Joshua is utilizing chloroplast protein import assays, genetic complementation, confocal microscopy, BN-PAGE (Blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) and co-immunoprecipitation to investigate these aspects of Plsp1. His Gordon Conference poster was titled

‘‘Towards Understanding the Mechanism of Sorting and the Functional Organization of Plastidic Type I Signal Peptidase 1.’’. Yan Lu Yan Lu received her Ph.D. in Botany from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005. During her Ph.D., she studied the pathway and regulation of starch degradation and maltose metabolism in the laboratory of Professor Thomas (Tom) D. Sharkey. After graduation, Yan has been working on a chloroplast functional genomics project in the laboratory of Professor Robert L. Last at the Michigan State University. The major focus of this project is parallel see more phenotypic screens of ~4000 Arabidopsis T-DNA insertion lines of nuclear-encoded plastid-targeted genes. While working on this project, Yan discovered a number of novel genes that are important for photosynthesis. The title of her 2011 Gordon Conference poster was “The Role of a Zinc Finger Protein in Photosynthesis and Light Stress

Tolerance”. Yan’s work on the zinc finger protein was recently accepted by Plant Cell. This example shows that the functional genomics approaches can be used to identify previously unknown genes most and mechanisms controlling photosynthesis and other chloroplast functions. The ambiance News Reports, when accompanied by photographs, always attract attention. See, e.g., (1) Govindjee, A.W. Rutherford and R.D. Britt (2007). Four young research investigators were honored at the 2006 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis. Photosynth. Res. 92: 137–138; additional photographs are available at: http://​www.​life.​illinois.​edu/​govindjee/​g/​Photo/​Gordon%20​Research%20​2006.​html. (2) Govindjee (2009) Young research investigators honored at the 2008 and 2009 Gordon Research Conferences on Photosynthesis: ambiance and a personal perspective. Photosynth. Res. 102:1-6.