The Schnable Lab team

What We Study

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Phenotyping

Developing and testing new approaches to measure plants, from greenhouses to fields to satellites.

📊

Quantitative Genetics

Collecting genetic, molecular, and trait data from large populations to understand how genes and environment shape phenotypes.

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Genomics

Using comparative genomics to engineer more stress-tolerant and resource-use-efficient plants.

Each lab member gains experience coding, building field equipment, running molecular assays, and communicating results to scientific and public audiences. The cross-training keeps our science grounded in real-world challenges and ensures discoveries translate beyond the lab.

Where Our Trainees Go

Our alumni are employed as professors at eleven universities across four countries, as research scientists at all three of the major seed companies, and at multiple plant biotechnology startups.

Alumni map

Recent Lab News

  • Jensina Davis speaks at Maize Genetics Conference

    Jensina Davis speaks at Maize Genetics Conference

    Jensina Davis presented her work on rapid prototyping of field imaging systems and AI image embeddings to map genes controlling plant disease responses at the Maize Genetics Conference in Köln, Germany.
  • Schnable Lab at Corn Breeding Research Meeting

    Schnable Lab at Corn Breeding Research Meeting

    Harshita Mangal, Waqar Ali, Karla Cuéllar, and Zhongjie Ji presented at the Corn Breeding Research meeting.
  • James Schnable elected to National Academy of Inventors

    James Schnable has been elected a member of the National Academy of Inventors.

See all news

Looking for the Iowa State group led by Dr. Patrick Schnable? Visit their site.