Fredy Altpeter

Fredy Altpeter is a Professor of Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) within the Agronomy department. With over two decades of service at UF since joining as faculty in December 2001, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008 and to Full Professor in 2012. His appointment consists of 80% research dedicated to crop improvement and 20% teaching responsibilities.

Dr. Altpeter's educational background includes a Dipl. Ing. Agr. degree (MS equivalent) in Crop Science from the University of Hohenheim in Germany (1990) and a PhD equivalent (Dr. sc. agr.) in Plant Breeding & Biotechnology from the same institution (1994). Prior to his faculty position, he completed postdoctoral research at UF (1994-1997) and served as Group Leader of a crop biotechnology team at the Plant Genome Resource Center of the IPK Gatersleben, Germany (1997-2001).

His research integrates translational genomics, molecular physiology, and metabolic engineering for crop improvement, with a focus on precision genome editing, synthetic biology, and molecular dissection of regulatory networks. He specializes in transforming grasses and sugarcane using gene editing to enhance production of value-added products, particularly for biofuel applications. His work has pioneered targeted genome editing in sugarcane, including both targeted co-mutagenesis of more than 100 genes and precision nucleotide substitutions.

Dr. Altpeter's publications reveal a strong focus on developing oil-producing sugarcane varieties, improving photosynthesis efficiency, and enhancing stress tolerance in bioenergy crops. His research has led to significant advancements in converting sugarcane into an oil-producing crop, a milestone that helped establish the Bioenergy Science Center funded with $115M by DOE.

• 2020 SIVB Distinguished Scientist Award
• University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship (2013, 2018)
• SIVB Fellow (2018)
• University of Florida-IFAS High Impact Publication award (2014)

Dr. Altpeter has mentored more than 18 graduate students and supervised 25 postdoctoral research associates while at UF, in addition to training numerous undergraduates and visiting scientists. His students have won more than 40 awards, including several from SIVB. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles in high-impact journals including Nature Biotechnology, Plant Cell, and Plant Biotechnology Journal, as well as 13 book chapters. He has been awarded two patents and filed four more in crop biotechnology.

His laboratory focuses on re-designing photosynthesis, plant architecture, and stress response pathways to enhance productivity of commercially important grasses, while developing metabolic engineering approaches for high biomass crops like sugarcane or energycane to drive the emerging bioeconomy through next-generation biofuels and chemicals.