Robert J. Ferl

About

Professor Robert J. Ferl is a plant molecular biologist at the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), where he co-leads the Space Plants Lab alongside Anna-Lisa Paul. Their research team focuses on understanding how plants grow and adapt in space environments, particularly aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The lab genetically engineers Arabidopsis thaliana plants to study their adaptation responses to specific stresses encountered in microgravity. By sending these plants to the ISS, the team investigates how space flight affects plant biology, monitoring growth through both macroscopic and microscopic imaging conducted by astronauts on the station, while lab members on Earth oversee the experiments remotely. After the plants return to Earth, they are preserved to maintain their on-orbit metabolic state, allowing for detailed genetic expression testing and other analyses to determine the biological responses to space conditions. Professor Ferl's work aims to elucidate the effects of space flight on plant gene regulation and metabolism, contributing to the broader goal of enabling sustainable plant growth in extraterrestrial environments.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Cell biology
• Ecology
• Astronomy
• Geology
• Environmental science
• Earth science
• Neuroscience
• Physics

Selected publications

• Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith present stress-associated transcriptomes that inform prospects for lunar exploration

  Communications Biology · 2022 · 88 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The extent to which plants can enhance human life support on other worlds depends on the ability of plants to thrive in extraterrestrial environments using in-situ resources. Using samples from Apollo 11, 12, and 17, we show that the terrestrial plant Arabidopsis thaliana germinates and grows in diverse lunar regoliths. However, our results show that growth is challenging; the lunar regolith plants were slow to develop and many showed severe stress morphologies. Moreover, all plants grown in lun…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Root Skewing-Associated Genes Impact the Spaceflight Response of Arabidopsis thaliana

  Frontiers in Plant Science · 2020 · 49 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  responses suggests that the loss of SKU5 initiates a much more complex, deeper and more stress related response to spaceflight. This suggests that proper SKU5 function is important to spaceflight adaptation.

  PublisherDOI

• Epigenomic Regulators Elongator Complex Subunit 2 and Methyltransferase 1 Differentially Condition the Spaceflight Response in Arabidopsis

  Frontiers in Plant Science · 2021 · 26 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  results in poor development in spaceflight grown plants, together with a diminished, dramatically reprogrammed transcriptomic response.

  PublisherDOI

• Integrative transcriptomics and proteomics profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana elucidates novel mechanisms underlying spaceflight adaptation

  Frontiers in Plant Science · 2023-11-27 · 21 citations

  articleOpen access

  Spaceflight presents a unique environment with complex stressors, including microgravity and radiation, that can influence plant physiology at molecular levels. Combining transcriptomics and proteomics approaches, this research gives insights into the coordination of transcriptome and proteome in Arabidopsis’ molecular and physiological responses to Spaceflight environmental stress. Arabidopsis seedlings were germinated and grown in microgravity (µ g ) aboard the International Space Station (ISS…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• NDVI imaging within space exploration plant growth modules – A case study from EDEN ISS Antarctica

  Life Sciences in Space Research · 2020-03-24 · 15 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01GM040061

  NIH · $1.1M · 1999

Frequent coauthors

• Anna‐Lisa Paul

  University of Florida

  157 shared

• Paul C. Sehnke

  University of Florida

  28 shared

• Natasha Sng

  21 shared

• Mingqi Zhou

  University of Florida

  21 shared

• Agata K. Żupańska

  Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

  18 shared

• Andrew C. Schuerger

  University of Florida

  16 shared

• Guihua Lu

  State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

  15 shared

• Jordan Callaham

  University of Florida

  15 shared

Labs

• Space Plants LabPI

Education

• PhD, Biology

  Indiana University

  1980

• BA, Biology

  Hiram College

  1976

Awards & honors

• NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal, 2022
• The AIAA Jeffries Award, 2016
• NASA Exception Scientific Achievement Medal, 2016
• Co-recipient of NASA Award for Most Compelling Science on th…
• Member- National Academy of Sciences, National Research Coun…

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