How do cells shape themselves and their environment? This is the question that has guided much of Magdalena Bezanilla's career, and one that has now earned her one of the highest honors in science.
Bezanilla, the Ernest Everett Just 1907 Professor of Biological Sciences, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her contributions to the field of plant biology. She is among nearly 449 scientists, engineers and innovators who have been elected 2025 AAAS Fellows.
"I'm deeply honored that the scientific community values the contributions that my lab has made over the years," says Bezanilla.
Her research has been instrumental to illuminating the fundamental mechanisms of plant growth. Understanding the drivers of plant growth could eventually help scientists engineer plants with specific traits, such as climate resilience or making them better candidates for biofuel production.
Inside every cell are molecules that govern how they are shaped and how they grow. Bezanilla's lab pioneered the use of moss as a model system that helps uncover the molecular mechanisms that underpin cell structure.
"I really don't think there's another organism that allows us to do what we can do with moss," says Bezanilla. "We can watch the plant develop from a single cell over the period of days to weeks under the microscope and get an unparalleled view of development at the resolution of a single cell."
What's more, moss is amenable to numerous genetic tools. In 2009, Bezanilla led the team that developed a new technique called multi-gene silencing. For the first time, groups of co-working genes were simultaneously "silenced," allowing scientists to figure out what they do. More recently Bezanilla’s group has continued to innovate, streamlining and tailoring the latest genetic editing tools for moss.
Bezanilla and her colleagues combine imaging and state-of-the-art genetic tools to monitor, in real time, individual proteins in living cells. This has allowed them to track proteins and observe how they are delivered to a particular part of the cell and how that impacts cell growth. Researchers can also watch as cells grow and divide within a whole tissue over weeks, helping them better understand and manipulate tissue patterning using genetic tools.
For example, a 2023 study led by Bezanilla revealed how a previously mysterious protein known as cellulose synthase-like D plays a crucial role in plant growth and is likely a generator of cellulose, which is the main structural component of all plants.
A more recent study from her lab revealed how plant cells use calcium ions to create a chemical "map" that directs where the cell adds material as it grows.
Ongoing projects are focused on studying receptors that bind to small proteins that are found in plants of all varieties. These tiny molecules regulate plants' responses to stress and could be the key to improving crop resilience.
Bezanilla's work has been recognized in numerous awards over the years. In 2023, she was named a fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists. She was the first woman to win the Golden Spore Award from the International Molecular Moss Science Society. Other awards include the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering.
"Professor Bezanilla's research has been key to elucidating the underlying mechanisms that control cell shape, and this award is fitting recognition of her importance to the field," says Jane Lipson, associate dean for the sciences. "We are proud to count her among our colleagues at Dartmouth, where she is both a highly recognized research scientist and a skilled faculty leader."