Mike Pollard.
BSc (chemistry) and PhD
(chemistry) from St. Andrews University, Scotland.
Postdoc with Dr. P.K.
Stumpf, University of California, Davis.
Fourteen year roller-coaster
ride in various ag-biotech companies, with a major focus in the analysis, chemistry
and biochemsitry of fats and oils, and where I learnt never to trust
management’s word, intention, competence or integrity.
Currently enjoying a return
to academia in John’s lab, where my projects include triacylglycerol synthesis,
and particularly an sn-3 acetyltransferase found in some seeds; on developing
the methods for oxygen-18 labeling and its use in studying acyl lipid turnover
in plant cells; more generally on the use of in vivo labeling to study lipid
metabolism in seeds; and several other projects on novel fatty acids and
lipids.