Dan Naylor
Plant Microbiologist
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About
- Experienced Scientific researcher with a degree in Plant Biology.
- Demonstrated experience in both wet lab and bioinformatics work studying soil and plant-associated microbiomes
- Emphasis on soil/plant microbiomes under abiotic stresses including drought
- Interested in leveraging the microbiome for applications such as soil health, sustainable agriculture/crop stress tolerance, carbon sequestration in the soil, and more.
Experience
NewLeaf Symbiotics, St Louis, MO
Senior Scientist in Plant Biology (January 2024 - February 2025)
Led team to conduct greenhouse experiments screening microbial isolates for plant growth promotion traits, including drought stress tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency enhancement, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions
Boost Biomes, Berkeley, CA
Microbial Ecologist (May 2023 - October 2023)
Contributed to biopesticide development: through a series of assays, identified
10 candidate helper microbes that enhanced growth and toxin production of
Bacillus thuringiensis
Switch Bioworks, San Carlos, CA
Microbiome Scientist (July 2022 - March 2023)
Contributed to biofertilizer development: analyzed maize samples to create a list of top 20 nitrogen-fixing microbes in root tissue.
Designed / implemented enrichment strategies to isolate these microbes from soil
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
Post-Doctoral Researcher (May 2021 - June 2022)
Developed assay for imposing low-nitrogen stress on plants in a controlled system. Screened microbes for conferring tolerance to low nitrogen upon the grass species Brachypodium distachyon using this assay
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
Post-Doctoral Researcher (April 2018 - April 2021)
In a field assay, evaluated the combination of drought and soil depth on performance of two species of tall wheatgrass, including effects on its root- and soil-associated microbiomes, transcriptomes, and metabolomes
Designed assay to test microbial isolates for antagonism towards fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG-8
University of California, Berkeley / USDA, Albany, CA
Graduate Student Researcher (November 2014 - February 2018)
In 2 field assays, measured the effects of drought on performance of 18 cereal grass species, and their associated microbiomes, across two different field sites.
Used statistics to confirm an effect of drought on plant phenotypic performance including biomass, plant height, and chlorophyll content
Created isolation strategies to obtain specific microbial isolates from drought-stressed sorghum roots for subsequent plant screens
Developed growth chamber assay to screen microbes for imposing drought stress promotion in sorghum. Leveraged isolate collection to identify 2
candidate microbes that conferred drought tolerance to sorghum in this assay
Education
University of California,
Berkeley
PhD in Plant Biology
December 2017
Berkeley, CA
University of California,
Davis
BSc in Plant Biotechnology
March 2012
Davis, CA
