Alexandre Marand

Alexandre Marand is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on understanding how dynamic genome regulation governs plant development through chromatin and transcriptional mechanisms. He leads the Marand Lab, which uses single-cell genomics and computational approaches to study cis-regulatory elements in plants like maize and Arabidopsis.

Education: PhD in Plant Biology (2018, University of Wisconsin-Madison), Postdoc at University of Georgia (2018–2023), recipient of NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship and NIH K99/R00 award. B.Sc. from Virginia Tech.

Research interests include: cis-regulatory element function, chromatin accessibility, single-cell profiling, plant development, and evolutionary genetics. The lab develops experimental and computational tools to study how regulatory variation shapes cellular identity and developmental diversity.

Key achievements: Published over 35 peer-reviewed articles, including high-impact work in Cell, Science, and Genetics. Lab members include postdocs, PhD students, and undergraduates. Collaborates on projects like the Plant Cell Atlas and maize genome sequencing initiatives.

Awards: NIH Pathway to Independence Award, NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, Rackham Research Grant (Andrew Luo), Michigan Pioneer Fellowship (Fabio Gomez-Cano).

Labs/Teams: Marand Lab at U-M, part of the MCDB Department and LSA. Collaborates with institutions like University of Georgia and Cold Spring Harbor Lab.