Health and Life Sciences

April 2007 Mission
Amit Dhingra
David Kramer
Bernd Markus Lange
Dorrie Main
Pat Okubara
Sanja Roje

November 2006 Mission
Wendy Brown
Mark Dybdahl
William Snyder
Andrew Storfer

March 2005 Mission
Michael Alfaro
Dean Glawe
Howard Hosick
Sylvia Oliver
Buel D. Rodgers
Bernard J. Van Wie

December 2004 Mission
Sayed Daoud
Linda Eddy
Amy G. Mazur
Mike Morgan
David Pietz
Francis Pierce

Dr. Dorrie Main is an associate professor of bioinformatics at Washington State University. She obtained her M.S. in information management and a Ph.D. in bioscience and biotechnology from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland. After post-doctoral training in plant biotechnology in Scotland, she moved to South Carolina to work in bioinformatics at the Clemson University Genomics Institute, eventually becoming the director of bioinformatics. In 2003, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry at Clemson University. She came to WSU in 2005. Dr. Main is a principal or co-principal investigator on several federally funded projects and has published in high impact bioinformatics and plant biology journals. She is active in science education at all levels and is particularly interested in introducing students, growers, and the public to the multi-disciplinary field of bioinformatics.

Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Dorrie Main
Bioinformatics, Biological Data Integration and Systems Biology

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Bioinformatics is an integral component of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. The challenge is developing accessible databases and tools that expediently and efficiently integrate these different data types and allow scientists to take a systems biology approach to understanding the organismal complexity.

Dr. Main’s research focuses on the development of systems biology resources and tools for Rosaceae species that can be easily extended to other plant families such as the Rutaceae and Vitaceae. Washington is a major producer of economically and nutritionally important temperate fruits such as apples, cherries, grapes, and raspberries. Dr. Main works collaboratively with WSU experts in genetics, breeding, physiology, biochemistry, and genomics to generate, analyze, and distill the collected data into an essential body of knowledge of fruit biology.

This multi-disciplinary, whole-plant biology approach to understanding the key genetic elements—which control important traits such as quality, stress response, and plant architecture—will ultimately lead to the development of improved fruit cultivars implementing marker assisted selection. This research to develop improved fruit crops is conducted through Intelli-GEN-Design™.

Contact Information
Dorrie Main, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

Washington State University
P.O. Box 646414
Pullman, WA 99164-6414

Telephone: 509-335-2774
E-mail: dorrie@wsu.edu