Joseph Jez

Vice Dean of Graduate Studies
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor

Spencer T. Olin Professor in Biology

PhD, University of Pennsylvania

contact info:

Email: jjez@wustl.edu
Phone: 314-935-3376
Office: Bayer Lab 507

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mailing address:

Washington University
CB 1137
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

Joseph Jez directs graduate studies for WashU Arts & Sciences and serves as a researcher and professor in the Department of Biology. He was appointed Vice Dean of Graduate Studies in 2026, a role that involves serving on the dean's senior leadership team and overseeing policies and programs for graduate education across Arts & Sciences. His research lab seeks to understand how environmental changes remodel biochemical pathways in plants at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels to engineer these systems to address agricultural and environmental problems.

Jez has been at WashU since 2008, when he joined the university as an assistant professor of biology. He has held numerous academic and leadership positions, including chair of the biology department, co-director of the Plant and Microbial Biosciences Graduate Program in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences, and director of the Amgen Scholars and Beckman Scholars programs. Jez also developed and continues to teach one of Arts & Sciences’ most popular Ampersand Programs: The Biotech Explorers Pathway.

The Jez Laboratory employs a combination of X-ray crystallography, enzymology, molecular biology, proteomics, and plant biology to study biochemical pathways. The lab focuses on three main areas: metabolic regulation and environmental responses in plants, enzymatic control of plant hormone responses, and using C. elegans to explore new metabolic pathways in nematodes.

Jez has received significant recognition for his research and teaching, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors award, and Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, as well as being named a fellow of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Currently the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Biology, Jez brings a valuable combination of academic and industry experience to WashU. He earned his bachelor’s in biochemistry with a minor in English from Penn State University and his PhD in biochemistry and molecular physics from the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to conduct postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, work as a scientist at a biotechnology company in California, and start his research group at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

Multimedia

The Once and Future Green Factory

Selected Publications

Jez JM, Lee SG, Sherp AM (2016) The next green movement: plant biology for the environment and sustainability. Science 353, 1241-4

Kilgore M, Holland CK, Jez JM, Kutchan TM (2016) Identification of a noroxomaritidine reductase with Amaryllidaceae alkaloid biosynthesis-related activities. J Biol Chem 291, 16740-52

Lee SG, Nwumeh R, Jez JM (2016) Structure and mechanism of isopropylmalate dehydrogenase from Arabidopsis thaliana: insights on leucine and aliphatic glucosinolate biosynthesis. J Biol Chem 291, 13421-30

Herrmann J, Nathin D, Lee SG, Sun T, Jez JM (2015) Recapitulating the structural evolution of redox regulation in adenosine-5'-phosphosulfate kinase from cyanobacteria to plants. J Biol Chem 290, 24705-14

Korasick DA, Jez JM, Strader LC (2015) Refining the nuclear auxin response pathway through structural biology. Curr Opin Plant Biol 27, 22-8

Cahoon RE, Lutke WK, Cameron JC, Chen S, Lee SG, Rivard RS, Rea PA, Jez JM (2015) Adaptive engineering of phytochelatin-based heavy metal tolerance. J Biol Chem 290, 17321-30

Bhuiya MW, Lee SG, Jez JM, Yu O (2015) Structure and mechanism of ferulic acid decarboxylase (FDC1) from Sacchromyces cerevisiae. Appl Environ Micro 81, 4213-26

Malik MR, Yang W, Patterson N, Tang J, Wellinghoff RL, Preuss ML, Burkitt C, Sharma N, Li J, Jez JM, Peoples OP, Jaworski JG, Cahoon EB, Snell KD (2015) Production of high levels of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate in plastids of Camelina sativa seeds. Plant Biotech J 13, 675-88

Korasick DA, Chatterjee S, Tonelli M, Dashti H, Lee SG, Westfall CS, Fulton DB, Andreotti AH, Amarashinghe G, Strader LC, Jez JM (2015) Defining a two-pronged structural model for PB1 domain interaction in plant auxin responses. J Biol Chem 290, 12868-78

Saen-oon S, Lee SG, Jez JM, Guallar V (2014) An alternate mechanism for the methylation of phosphoethanolamine catalyzed by Plasmodium falciparum phosphoethanolamine methyltransferase. J Biol Chem 289, 33815-25

Westfall CS, Xu A, Jez JM (2014) Structural evolution of differential amino acid effector regulation in plant chorismate mutases. J Biol Chem 289, 28619-28

Meesters C, Monig T, Oeljeklaus J, Krahn D, Westfall CS, Hause B, Jez JM, Kaiser M, Kombrink E (2014) A selective inhibitor of jasmonate signaling identified via high-throughput chemical screening targets the adenylate-forming enzyme JAR1 in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature Chem Biol 10, 830-6

Jez JM, Blankenship RE (2014) Lights, x-rays, oxygen! Cell 158, 701-3

Lee SG, Krishnan HB, Jez JM (2014) Structural basis for regulation of Rhizobial nodulation and symbiosis gene expression by NolR. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111, 6509-14

Korasick DA, Westfall CS, Lee SG, Nanao M, Dumas R, Hagen G, Guilfoyle TJ, Jez JM, Strader LC (2014) Molecular basis for auxin response factor protein interaction and the control of auxin response repression. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111, 5427-32

Lee SG, Jez JM (2013) Evolution of structure and mechanistic divergence in di-domain methyltransferases from nematode phosphocholine biosynthesis. Structure 21, 1778-87

Westfall CS, Zubieta C, Herrmann J, Kapp U, Nanao M, Jez JM (2012) Structural basis for pre-receptor modulation of plant hormones by GH3 family proteins. Science 336, 1708-11

From our podcast:

Becoming a biotech explorer

Three years after launching the Biotech Explorers Pathway, a unique opportunity for first-year and sophomore students, biology professor Joe Jez shares how the program started and some of what its students have accomplished so far.