Professor of Metabolic Engineering

Vaughn Endowed Professorship; Director, A-State Phenomics Facility

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Education

• Ph.D. Biotechnology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Cuernavaca, Mexico
• M.Sc. Biotechnology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Cuernavaca, Mexico
• B.Sc. Biochemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa(UAM-I), Mexico

Teaching Specialties

• Molecular Genetics and Genomics
• Topics in Molecular Biosciences
• Biochemistry
• Biochemistry Laboratory
• Chemistry Seminar

Research Interests

• Plant metabolic engineering
• Vitamin C metabolism
• Plant stress tolerance
• Plant high throughput phenotyping

Affiliations

• American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS)
• North American Plant Phenotyping Network (NAPPN)
• North East Arkansas Hispanic Professional Network (NEAHPN)
• Phytochemical Society of North America (PSNA)
• Sigma Xi

Curriculum Vitae

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Biography

Lorence grew up in Mexico, and joined ABI/A-State in 2005. She was at Virginia Tech before coming to Arkansas. Her life-long passion is biochemistry. Lorence was part of the team that in 2004 published the discovery of a new biosynthetic pathway for vitamin C in plants. At A-State Lorence leads a research team involved in understanding how plants make this essential vitamin using myo-inositol as the main building block. Her group also studies how vitamin C delays aging and contributes to confer plants tolerance to stresses. Her current model plants of study are: Arabidopsis, tobacco, tomato, and rice. Since 2011 she also leads the A-State Plant High Throughput Phenotyping Facility.