C-SPIRIT News: June 2025

Friday, June 27th, 2025

Learn About Aim 2 with a New Blogpost!

How is C-SPIRIT working to illuminate the “dark metabolome” and make metabolomics data usable across species and ecosystems? Learn more in our new blogpost From Data to Discovery: How C-SPIRIT Is Transforming Metabolite Annotation, featuring Gaurav Moghe, Aim 2 lead and plant biologist at Cornell University. Here's a preview:

“Over 95% of compounds found in plant and microbial studies remain structurally and functionally undefined. Despite techniques like liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) producing enormous volumes of chemical data, this data remains largely uninterpreted, leaving the majority of these natural products unanalyzed and unused and creating a significant bottleneck in discovering novel bioactive products from plant and microbial sources.

C-SPIRIT’s Aim 2: Metabolite Annotation and Database Development seeks to change that. The initiative focuses on three tightly connected goals: 1) building the first comprehensive annotation framework for plant and microbial metabolites, 2) designing high-throughput pipelines to identify chemical patterns and stress responses, and 3) integrating annotated data into public, intuitive databases that empower researchers across disciplines. Together, these efforts aim to raise annotation rates dramatically, turning unreadable chemical data into actionable biological insight.”

Institutional Feature: University of Toronto

To help the C-SPIRIT community learn about each institution involved with our global center, we are spotlighting the teams that help drive C-SPIRIT's research. Next up in our Institutional Feature series is the University of Toronto!

Three researchers in the Provart Lab at the University of Toronto are contributing to C-SPIRIT through cutting-edge work in metabolite annotation, database development, and gene & pathway discovery. Their efforts are advancing our ability to link metabolomics data with functional biological pathways, creating resources that support large-scale data integration across plant systems. By combining computational biology, genomics, and visualization tools, the team plays a central role in Aims 2 and 3, strengthening C-SPIRIT’s capacity to interpret chemical signals in plants and uncover the regulatory pathways that shape their production and function.

Michigan State University ASPB Plant Biology 2025 Mixer – Sunday, July 27th, 2025

Are you attending the American Society of Plant Biologist's Plant Biology 2025 Conference? You're invited to the MSU Plant Science Community mixer (even if you're not from MSU)! Taking place at the end of the poster session on Sunday, the event is just a short walk away from the conference at The Brewery in downtown Milwaukee. Food and drinks provided, and no registration required!

Details:

• Date: Sunday, July 27, 2025
• Time: 7:30–10:30 p.m. CT
• Location: The Brewery, 1101 N Water St, Milwaukee, WI

American Society of Pharmacognosy Annual Meeting – August 2-6, 2025

The 2025 ASP Annual Meeting is a scientific conference hosted by the American Society of Pharmacognosy, focused on natural products research. It brings together scientists from academia, industry, and government to share advancements in areas like drug discovery, metabolomics, chemical ecology, and biotechnology. The event includes workshops, talks, poster sessions, and networking opportunities.

C-SPIRIT Director Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee from Michigan State University will be a Plenary Speaker at this event as a part of a symposium on metabolomics.

Details:

• Dates: Saturday, August 2nd - Wednesday, August 6th
• Location: Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Grand Rapids, MI

Brassica 2025 – September 1-4, 2025

The Brassica 2025 meeting continues the longstanding tradition of the "Crucifer Genetics" and "Brassica" conference series, which for several decades have served as key international forums for the presentation of research on cruciferous crops. The conference brings together researchers and breeders working on the genetics, genomics, physiology, and improvement of Brassica species and related taxa. Presentations will span topics such as stress response, metabolic regulation, and crop enhancement, with a focus on integrating recent findings into applied breeding strategies.

Details:

• Dates: September 1-4, 2025
• Location: Giessen, Germany
• Poster Abstract Deadline: July 15, 2025
  Registration Deadline: August 14, 2025

12th Conference of the Polish Society of Experimental Plant Biology – September 9-12, 2025

Organized biennially, the 12th Conference of the Polish Society of Experimental Plant Biology will convene national and international researchers to present advances in plant experimental biology. The meeting will feature sessions on cellular signaling, metabolic processes, plant-environment interactions, developmental regulation, and biotechnology. Designed to foster exchange among scientists at all career stages, the conference provides a platform for the dissemination of high-impact experimental research and the development of new collaborative initiatives.

Details:

• Dates: September 9–12, 2025
  Location: Warsaw, Poland
  Abstract Submission Deadline: July 20, 2025
  Registration Deadline: August 10, 2025

Let us know about your upcoming talks!

Want to see your presentation/talk listed here? Feel free to email us at C-SPIRIT.Admin@msu.edu!