I am a senior Ph.D. student in the Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology. My research focuses on stomata development in Arabidopsis. As the main gate for gas exchange, stomata are essential for plant survival. FLP (FOUR LIPS), a MYB protein, has been shown to participate in stomata development since its mutants (four lips) cause stomata in contact due to extra cell division. Specifically, my goal is to understand how FLP controls the balance between guard cell division and differentiation on the molecular level using biochemistry, genomics and genetics and other tools.