Janet Paper

Dr. Janet Paper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Benedictine College. She earned her Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Michigan State University in 2011 and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from William Jewell College. Her office is located in Westerman Hall 212, and she can be contacted via phone at 913.360.7436.

Research Focus: Dr. Paper investigates microbial community dynamics in changing environments, particularly soil ecosystems affected by natural disturbances like flooding. Her work examines post-disturbance recovery patterns in microbial populations. She also researches the plant pathogen Fusarium graminearum, analyzing secreted proteins' roles in infection mechanisms and environmental adaptation using gene manipulation techniques.

Publication Trends: Her research spans plant biology, fungal pathogenesis, and microbial ecology. Recent work emphasizes molecular mechanisms in plant development (Arabidopsis), enzyme specificity in Fusarium, and proteomic approaches to study plant-microbe interactions. Methodologies frequently include comparative genomics, mutant phenotype analysis, and extracellular protein characterization.