Luca Comai | |
|---|---|
| Education | Bachelor's in Agricultural Science (1976) Master's in Plant Pathology (1978) Ph.D. in Plant Pathology (1980) |
| Alma mater | University of Bologna Washington State University University of California, Davis |
| Known for | Development of glyphosate resistant plants, created the TILLING protocol |
| Awards | Distinguished Research Award (2015) Faculty Teaching Award (2017) 2017 Innovation Prize for Agricultural Technology (ASPB) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Plant pathology Plant biotechnology |
| Institutions | Calgene Washington State University University of California, Davis |
| Website | comailab |
Luca Comai is an Italian plant biologist whose work has focused on trait discovery for improving agricultural crops and on developing protocols and systems for identifying new genes and mutations in plants. Through his work at Calgene, Comai was one of the first discoverers of the glyphosate resistance gene and is considered a pioneer in the field of plant biotechnology research.
His research since then has focused on developing the Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes (TILLING) protocol that allows for new mutations and traits to be quickly identified within a target plant species through genome and sequence analysis. He has received a number of research and teaching awards, along with being named a Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2023, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[1]