Rate My Professor Adam Bogdanove

Adam J. Bogdanove is Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He earned a Doctorate from Cornell University in 1997 and a Bachelor of Science from Yale University in 1987. Bogdanove's research centers on diseases of rice caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pathovars, including bacterial blight and bacterial leaf streak. His work elucidates the roles of transcription activator-like (TAL) effector proteins secreted by these pathogens into host cells to promote disease. He develops tools for TAL effector design and prediction, and explores their applications in genome editing and custom gene regulation. These efforts include functional genomics of plant-pathogen interactions and the role of TAL effectors in plant disease and immunity. Bogdanove contributes to graduate training in the fields of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Plant Biology, Computational Biology, and Microbiology.

Bogdanove's foundational discoveries on TAL effectors have profoundly influenced molecular biology and biotechnology. He demonstrated that TAL effectors recognize specific DNA sequences via a simple cipher, enabling their repurposing as customizable DNA-targeting proteins. Key publications include 'A simple cipher governs DNA recognition by TAL effectors' (Moscou and Bogdanove, Science, 2009), 'TAL effectors: customizable proteins for DNA targeting' (Bogdanove and Voytas, Science, 2011), 'Efficient design and assembly of custom TALEN and other TAL effector-based constructs for DNA targeting' (Cermak et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 2011), and 'TAL effectors: finding plant genes for disease and defense' (Bogdanove et al., Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 2010). His TAL effector nuclease (TALEN) technology was named a runner-up for Science magazine's Breakthrough of the Year in 2012. Bogdanove received the E.C. Stakman Award for Excellence in Plant Pathology from the University of Minnesota in 2017 and the Noel T. Keen Award for Research Excellence in Molecular Plant Pathology. He has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in multiple years, including 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.