Jasmeen Kaur, CHBE Postdoctoral fellow, has received the best poster award and travel grant at the Metabolomics Association of North America’s (MANA) 4th annual conference in Edmonton.
Dr. Kaur received the award for her poster “Metabolic profiling of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by the Corpse plant using GC×GC-TOF MS”, research carried out in Dr. Jane Hill’s Research Lab. The Best Poster award is a competitive award for competitors who clearly and enthusiastically describes the scientific merit of their research. Awards are based on effective visual and oral presentation, quality of research, and depth of understanding.
Dr. Kaur’s research in the Hill Lab is focused on the identification of plant VOCs using the state-of-art instrumentation with the bigger goal of finding potential semiochemicals in plants and/or discovering volatile compounds from medicinal plant for the development of new drug therapies.
VOCs emitted by plants, often called as semiochemicals, play an important role in attracting pollinators and in the defense against predators. Profiling of VOCs is useful in understanding the evolutionary pathway of plant-insect interactions. The identification of these semiochemicals can help in the development of alternative pest management strategies and enhancing pollination in plants.
Plant VOCs also often produce various pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anxiolytic, among others, and are useful in the treatment of various human diseases. The characterization of VOCs with medicinal effects is an important aspect of drug discovery from medicinal plants.
For more information about Jasmeen Kaur’s research, visit the Hill Lab website.