Vivian Irish

Vivian Irish, Ph.D., is the Daniel C. Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology and Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. She received her B.A. in Biology from Wesleyan University and her Ph.D. in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Her research focuses on understanding how plants regulate developmental plasticity to elaborate particular organ types, using model systems such as Arabidopsis, tomato, and citrus. She has explored the conservation of developmental pathways across flowering plant species and has contributed to efforts to genetically engineer citrus for disease tolerance. Dr. Irish has held leadership roles, including chair of the MCDB department at Yale from 2016-2022 and past president of the Society for Developmental Biology.

Vivian Irish is a Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University, specializing in the molecular mechanisms underlying plant and animal development. Her research focuses on the genetic regulation of floral development, particularly the role of MADS-box genes such as APETALA3 and PISTILLATA in controlling petal and stamen formation. She also investigates the evolution of these genes across species, including their duplication and divergence in the APETALA1/FRUITFULL lineage. Her work explores how cis-regulatory elements and transcriptional co-factors influence gene expression during floral homeotic gene regulation. Additionally, she studies the molecular basis of fruit development and the role of genes like TAGL1 in fleshy fruit expansion. Her research also extends to Drosophila developmental genetics, including the function of genes like nanos and decapentaplegic in embryonic patterning.