Bernd Markus Lange

Bernd Markus Lange serves as Director and Professor at Washington State University's Institute of Biological Chemistry, where he also directs the M.J. Murdock Metabolomics Laboratory Service Center and the NIH Protein Biotechnology Training Program. His research spans plant specialized metabolism with particular focus on mint and cannabis systems.

Lange's research interests include plant specialized metabolism at multiple levels, encompassing gene discovery, regulation of gene expression, enzyme characterization, metabolomics, and metabolic flux analysis. His laboratory particularly investigates metabolism in specialized anatomical structures and cell types like glandular trichomes and resin ducts, which are responsible for accumulating essential oils, oleoresins, and pharmaceutically relevant natural products. Current projects include mint varietal improvement, biosynthesis of aroma volatiles in cannabis, plant secretory structures, medicinal plant biotechnology, and metabolic modeling.

His recent publications (2020-2025) demonstrate a strong focus on terpene synthases, cannabis biochemistry, and plant specialized metabolism. These works reveal trends toward understanding structure-function relationships in enzymes, connecting genotype to chemotype in cannabis, and developing analytical methods for plant metabolites. The research spans multiple disciplines including plant biochemistry, metabolomics, and natural product chemistry.

Lange has received significant recognition including being elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2021) and receiving the Arthur C. Neish Young Investigator Award from the Phytochemical Society of North America (2007). He has served in leadership roles including President of the Phytochemical Society of North America (2017-2018) and Co-Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Plant Volatiles (2018).

As a mentor, Lange has advised numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to successful careers in academia, industry, and government. His laboratory maintains key research resources including the M.J. Murdock Metabolomics Laboratory service center, Spektraris (a mass spectral library for plant natural products), and specialized genomics resources for mint and yew research. Current projects focus on unraveling the genetics and biochemistry of cannabinoid and terpene formation in cannabis, as well as understanding terpene synthase structure-function relationships.