Dr. José Dinneny

Biography

José Dinneny earned his BS in Plant Biology Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley. He pursued his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, in the laboratory of Detlef Weigel at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Martin Yanofsky in the Division of Biology, focusing on the molecular genetic processes governing plant organ shape. After completing his post-doctoral work in the lab of Philip Benfey at Duke University, where he pioneered the use of Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting to create tissue-specific maps of transcriptional changes under abiotic stress, José established an independent lab at the Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory in Singapore, concurrently affiliated with the National University of Singapore's Department of Biological Sciences. In 2011, he moved his lab to the Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Plant Biology, and in 2018, he joined Stanford University as a Professor in the Biology Department. In 2024, he became an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Over his 16-year career, Dinneny's research has revealed novel plant adaptations to water-related stresses, providing broad physiological and agricultural implications. He has unraveled developmental molecular mechanisms and introduced innovative imaging and robotics approaches to plant-environment studies, as well as pioneering synthetic biology tools for precise plant engineering. José's accolades include being a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, AAAS Fellow, HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar, National Research Foundation Singapore fellow, NIH Ruth Kirschstein post-doctoral fellow, and HHMI predoctoral fellow, and he was featured in Science News magazine's "2017 SN 10: Scientists to Watch" list, receiving the 2023 Charles Albert Shull Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards