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February 9, 2006
Augie Professor has Work Published in Prestigious Journal
SIOUX FALLS - Dr. Michael Wanous’ sabbatical in 2004-2005 was gratifying to say the least.
An associate professor of biology at Augustana, Wanous was partnered with an expert of choice, he was in a country he had longed to visit, and the fruits of his work will be published in what colleagues laud as the science world’s premier publication journal.
Co-authored with Dr. Graham Moore and others, Wanous’ paper is entitled “Molecular Characterisation of Ph1, a Major Chromosome Pairing Locus in Polyploid Wheat.”
The paper will be published in the February 9, 2006, edition of Nature.
“Only the very, very best scientific papers are published in Nature,” said Dr. Maureen Diggins, Orin M. Lofthus Distinguished Professor and Chair of Augustana’s Natural Science Division.
Nature, the world’s foremost weekly scientific journal, was launched in 1869. It is published in England.
Wanous spent a year working with Moore, the principal investigator, at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England.
“Dr. Moore is a world-famous wheat plant geneticist,” says Wanous. “I wanted to work with someone good, and he is really good. Along with that, I thought England would be a great place for me and my family to live for a year.”
Wanous was accompanied by his wife, Martha, and their two children, Elizabeth and Daniel.
“Living in England for a year was fascinating. It was a mixture of amazing experiences and also challenges for us. The whole year was just one of those things God works out,” says Wanous.
Wanous met Moore at a conference in San Diego, Calif., in January, 2004. There they discussed details of the sabbatical.
The John Innes Centre is an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science and microbiology. Its mission is to carry out fundamental and strategic research, to train scientists, and to make its findings available to society. The Centre’s scientific research uses a wide range of disciplines in biology and chemistry, including cell biology, biochemistry, chemistry, genetics, and molecular biology.
“My research has focused on understanding how homologous chromosomes recognize each other to pair properly in meiosis (the process of creating eggs and sperm),” says Wanous. “In wheat, the situation is complicated by the fact that the plants
have six sets of chromosomes. Humans have two.
“Once we understand the process we can use that knowledge to introduce genes from related species into wheat. Practical uses would include heat and drought tolerance, drought resistance, and insect and disease resistance.”
Wanous has been teaching at Augustana since 1997. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and attended St. Mary’s Secondary School in Nairobi, Kenya. His father was a veterinarian and a missionary.
“I’ve loved nature since I was little,” he says. “Biology was my favorite subject in high school.”
He received his bachelor’s degree in agronomy at the University of Minnesota, his master’s in plant breeding at Texas A&M University, and his Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He taught genetics for a year at the University of Missouri before coming to Augustana.
It’s widely accepted that only papers deemed to be of great significance and interest are printed in Nature. Wanous met the criteria on his first attempt.
“It’s an honor to be published in Nature,” he says.