margot bezrutczyk

Leadership and interpersonal skills: Independent and proven record of driving complex projects forward • Coordinated long-term projects with other researchers • Developed successful collaborations • Mentored nine masters and bachelors students • Hired and supervised employees as lab manager • Research design • Grant writing

Laboratory skills: Expert troubleshooter adept at implementing process improvements, developing assays, and delivering results quickly • Functional genomics • Spatial transcriptomics • Single-cell sequencing • NGS library preparation and analysis • Molecular cloning • High throughput genotyping • RT-qPCR • in situ mRNA hybridization • Immunohistochemistry • Advanced confocal microscopy techniques (FRET-FLIM, APB) • Two-photon microscopy • Plant transformation

Bioinformatics skills: R, Python, Linux environment and command line tools

Work Experience:

2024- present Heritable Agriculture: Senior Scientist

AI for plant improvement, startup spun out of Google X

2023-2024 Google X -- The Moonshot Factory: Scientist

Biological assay development for machine learning model validation

2020-2023 Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab: Postdoctoral Fellow

Used spatial-transcriptomics and single cell sequencing to generate atlas of plant-microbe interactions, resulting in the first spatially-resolved transcriptome of a multi-kingdom interaction, a publication in Nature Plants (in press), and an award-winning presentation at the Plant Cell Atlas symposium.
Leveraged spatial transcriptomics tools to map cell-type specific responses of sorghum and other biofuel crops to phosphate stress, paving the way for a multi-omics atlas of agronomically important grasses.
Collaborated with external partners including educational non-profit and space-travel liaison company, resulting in a plant-microbe interaction experiment on the ISS.

2022-present Golden Gate Raptor Observatory: apprentice

Raptor banding

2022-present San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory: volunteer

California Gull colony surveys, Least Tern colony monitoring, waterbird monitoring, winter shorebird surveys

2014-2017 Lab of Wolf Frommer, Carnegie Institution, Stanford: Technician, Lab group manager

Characterized a class of maize sugar transporters using a wide array of molecular techniques, including agrobacterium-mediated transformation, high throughput genotyping & phenotyping of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated maize mutants, metabolite quantification.

3/13-12/13 Grow Strong, Bondo, Kenya: Sustainable agriculture intern at intnl non-profit

Secured funding for sustainable livelihoods project
Created a demonstration children’s garden in rural Kenyan village

1/13-3/13 University of California, San Diego: Graduate teaching assistant for writing course:

Created and conducted lesson plans, lead writing workshops, provided one-on-one tutoring

9/11-3/13 University of California, San Diego: Graduate student researcher

8/12-3/13 Wild Willow Farm & Education Center: Sustainable agriculture associate

6/12-8/12 Olivewood Garden Education Center: Food systems intern

1/09-6/11 Lab of Richard Axel, Columbia University: Neuroscience laboratory technician

Students mentored:

Ruoxi Zhao (2022): JGI-UC Merced Summer Student

Lorenzo Scaturchio (2021): JGI-UC Merced Summer Student

Maria Mendoza (2021): JGI-UC Merced Summer Student

Nora Zöllner (2020): HHU: Masters student

Kajetan Linkert (2019-2020): HHU: Bachelor student

Julia Werner (2019): University of Greifswald: visiting Masters student

Ram Sevak-Kumar (2019-2020): Max Planck Institute: Masters student (co-mentorship)

Magnus Kerber (2016) Carnegie Institution for Science: intern

Ciara Garcia (2015) Carnegie Institution for Science: intern

Publications:

Bezrutczyk, M*., Serrano, K*., Goudeau, D., Dao, T., O’Malley, R., Malmstrom, R. R., Visel, A, Scheller, H., Cole, B., (2024) Spatial co-transcriptomics reveals discrete stages of the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. Nature Plants.
Bezrutczyk, M., Zöllner, N.R., Kruse, C.P.S., Hartwig, T., Lautwein, T., Köhrer, K., Frommer, W.B., and Kim, J., (2021), Phloem loading via the abaxial bundle sheath cells in maize leaves. The Plant Cell.
Kim, J., Symeonidi, E., Pang, T.Y., Denyer, T., Weidauer, Bezrutczyk, M., D., Miras, M., Wudick, M.M., Lercher, M., Timmermans, M.C.P., Frommer, W.B.F. (2020) Transcriptome atlas of the Arabidopsis leaf vasculature. The Plant Cell.
Moe-Lange J., Machado, M., Gappel, N., Wudick, M.M., Schott-Verdugo, S.N., Bonus, M., Hartwig, T., Basu, D., Bezrutczyk, M., Gohlke, H., Malkovskiy, A., Haswell, E.S., Farmer, E.E., Ehrhardt, D.W., Frommer, W.B.F., Kleist, T.J. (2021) Role for a mechanosensitive ion channel in wound-induced electrical signaling. Science Advances.
Zöllner, NR., Bezrutczyk M., Laureyns, R., Nelissen, H., Simon, R., Frommer, W., An RNA in situ hybridization protocol optimized for monocot tissue. (2021) STAR Protocols.
Sosso D.,van der Linde, K., Bezrutczyk, M., Schuler, D., Schneider, K., Kämper, J., Walbot, V. (2019) Sugar Partitioning between Ustilago maydis and its host Zea mays L during infection. Plant Physiology.
Bezrutczyk, M. , Yang, J. , Eom, J. , Prior, M. , Sosso, D. , Hartwig, T. , Szurek, B. , Oliva, R., Vera‐Cruz, C. White, F. F., Yang, B. and Frommer, W. B. (2018) Sugar flux and signaling in plant–microbe interactions. The Plant Journal.
Bezrutczyk, M. , Hartwig, T. , Horschman, M. , Char, S. N., Yang, J. , Yang, B. , Frommer, W. B. and Sosso, D. (2018) Impaired phloem loading in zmsweet13a,b,c sucrose transporter triple knock‐out mutants in Zea mays. New Phytologist.

Invited Talks:

American Society of Plant Biologists: Invited Symposium Speaker (2022)

Carnegie Institution for Science, Plant Biology Department: Seminar Speaker (2022)

The Plant Cell Atlas: Invited Speaker (2021)

Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben; Invited Seminar Speaker (2018)

Lecture on Maize Domestication via iCultiver at San Francisco Children’s Day School (2017)

Organized field trip series for Children’s day school at Carnegie Institution for Science (2017)

Wild Willow Farm School guest speaker: Opportunities in Sustainable Agriculture in Kenya (2014)

Selected Poster Presentations at International Conferences:

Mapping multi-kingdom symbiotic interactions with spatial transcriptomics and single-nucleus sequencing: Joint Genome Institute User Meeting (2022)
Phloem loading via the abaxial bundle sheath cells in maize leaves. American Society for Plant Biologists, Virtual (2020)
Roles of SWEET sugar transporters in phloem loading and seed filling in maize and rice. American Society for Plant Biologists, San Jose, California (2019)
Apoplasmic phloem loading in Zea mays requires three SWEET sucrose transporters. Maize Genetics Conference, St. Malo, France (2018)
Seed filling in domesticated maize and rice depends on SWEET-mediated hexose transport. Workshop on Plant Development and Drought Stress, Asilomar, CA (2015)

Education:

8/17-10/20 Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Physiology. Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf

Thesis: Single-cell sequencing reveals phloem loading pathway via abaxial bundle sheath cells in the maize leaf
Using cutting-edge sequencing and traditional histological techniques, discovered a sub-type of bundle sheath cell in maize leaf specialized for metabolite transport
Designed and genotyped multiplexed CRISPR-Cas9-mediated wheat mutant population
Developed disease assays for multiple crop pathosystems

9/11- 3/13 M.S. in Neuroscience. University of California, San Diego

Thesis title: Cellular Mechanisms of Local Sleep-Mediated Plasticity

9/05-12/08 B.S. in Neural Science. New York University, New York

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