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Sarah M. Assmann is the Waller Professor of Biology at the Eberly College of Science. Her research focuses on plant electrophysiology and signal transduction, particularly how higher plants sense and acclimate to a wide variety of environmental signals. Utilizing molecular and electrophysiological techniques, her lab investigates the messenger pathways that mediate cellular responses to light and hormonal signals. A major focus of her work is on guard cells, which are responsible for regulating the apertures of stomatal pores in leaf epidermis—crucial for balancing water loss and carbon dioxide uptake necessary for photosynthesis. Her studies employ techniques like patch clamping to monitor ionic currents in real time to understand the physiological roles of ion channel regulation in response to environmental changes and plant hormones, such as abscisic acid (ABA). Assmann’s laboratory also explores the involvement of G-proteins in ion channel regulation and has identified a novel gene associated with G-protein function in plants, further advancing the knowledge of cellular signaling in plant systems.
GRE scores are highly recommended but not strictly required for Applied Linguistics.