Monica Schmidt

Associate Professor - School of Plant Sciences, BIO5 Institute
520-626-1643

Educational Background

  • 1993 BSc Biology University of Windsor, Ontario Canada
  • 1999 PhD Genetics University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada
  • 2003 post-doctorate fellow University of Georgia
  • 2007 post-doctorate associate USDA/ARS, St.Louis MO
  • 2008 Senior Research Scientist, The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St.Louis MO

Research Interests

  • Plant Biotechnology
  • Seed Biology
  • Nutraceuticals

Selected Publications

Schmidt MA (2020) Transgenic plant species engineered to inhibit biosynthesis of Aspergillus aflatoxin. US patent 15/579,167.
Konda AR, Nazarenus TJ, Nguyen H, Yang J, Gelli M, Swenson S, Shipp JM, Schmidt MA, Cahoon RE, Ciftci ON, Zhang C, Clemente TE, Cahoon EB. (2020) Metabolic engineering of soybean seeds for enhanced vitamin E tochromanol content and effects on oil antioxidant properties in polyunsaturated fatty acid-rich germplasm. Metabolic Engineering 57:63-73.
Krogdahl A, Kortner TM, Jaramillo-Torres A, Gamil AAA, Chikwati E, Li Y, Schmidt MA, Herman E, Hymowitiz T, Teimouri S, Storebakken T (2020) Removal of three proteinaceous antinutrients from soybean does not mitigate soybean-induced enteritis in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L). Aquaculture 514: 734495
Herman EM, Schmidt MA, Slepian MJ (2020) Methods, systems and compositions for legume-based production of therapeutic proteins and therapeutic medical materials. US patent 16/623,187
Radcliffe JS, Brito LF, Reddivari L, Schmidt MA, Herman EM, Schinckel AP (2019) A swine model of soy protein-induced food allergencity: implications in human and swine nutrition. Animal Frontiers 9: 52-59.
Schmidt MA, Herman EM (2018) Characterization and functional biology of the soybean aleurone layer. BMC Plant Biology 18, 354
Isani M, Illingworth L, Herman E, Schmidt M, Barron L, Bowling J, Elizee M, Bai I, Gayer C, Grishin A, Erwin CR, Ford HR, Warner BW (2018) Soybean-derived recombinant human epidermal growth factor protects against experimental necrotizing enterocolitis. Journal of Pediatric Surgery 53: 1203-1207.
Thakare D, Zhang J, Wing RA, Cotty PJ, Schmidt MA (2017) Aflatoxin-free transgenic maize using host-induced gene silencing. Science Advances 3(3) e1602382
Schmidt MA, Pendarvis K (2017) Proteome rebalancing in transgenic Camelina occurs within the enlarged proteome induced by B-carotene accumulation and storage protein suppression. Transgenic Research 26: 171-186.
Federico ML, Schmidt MA (2016) Modern breeding and biotechnological approaches to enhance carotenoid accumulation in seeds. Carotenoids in Nature, 345-358.
He Y, Schmidt MA, Erwin C, Guo J, Sun R, Pendarvis K, Warner B, Herman E (2016) Transgenic soybean production of bioactive human epidermal growth factor (EGF). PloS one 6, e0157034
Herman EM, Schmidt MA (2016) The potential for engineering enhanced functional-feed soybeans for sustainable aquaculture feed. Frontiers in Plant Science 7, 440
Schmidt MA, Parrott WA, Hildebrand DF, Berg RH, Cooksey Am, Pendarvis K, He Y, McCarthy F, Herman EM (2015) Transgenic soya bean seeds accumulating b-carotene exhibit the collateral enhancements of oleate and protein content traits. Plant Biotechnology Journal 13: 590-600.
Schmidt MA, Hymowitz T, Herman EM (2015) Breeding and characterization of soybean Triple Null: a stack of recessive alleles of Kunitz Trypsin Inhibitor, Soybean Agglutinin and P34 allergen nulls. Plant Breeding 134: 310-315
Herman EM, Schmidt MA (2015) Towards using biotechnology to modify soybean seeds as protein bioreactors. Recent advances in Gene Expression and Enabling Technologies in Crop Plants. 193-212.
Schmidt, M.A., Barbazuk, W.B., Stanford, M., May. G., Song, Z., Hong, W., Nikolau, B.J., Herman, E.M. (2011) Silencing of soybean seed storage proteins results in a rebalanced protein composition preserving seed protein content without major collateral changes in the metabolome and transcriptome. Plant Physiology 156: 330-345.
Herman, E.M., Schmidt, M.A. (2011) Designing oilseeds for value-added protein co-products. In; Designing Soybeans for 21st Century Markets. Ed. R.Wilson. AOCS Press.
Semenyuk, E.G., Schmidt, M.A., Beachy, R.N., Moravec, T., Woodford-Thomas, T. (2010) Adaptation of an ecdysone-based genetic switch for transgene expression in soybean seeds. Transgenic Research 19: 987-999.
Herman, E.M. and Schmidt, M.A. (2010) Industrial protein production crops. GM crops 1: 1-6
Semenyuk, E.G., Schmidt, M.A., Woodford-Thomas, T. Moravec, T. (2009) Engineering seeds for the production and delivery of oral vaccines. In, Modification of seed composition to promote health and nutrition. American Society of Agronomy (ed) H.Krishnan pp121-150.
Schmidt, M.A. and Herman, E.M. (2008) Proteome rebalancing in soybean seeds can be exploited to enhance foreign protein accumulation. Plant Biotech J 6: 832-842.
Schmidt, M.A. and Herman, E.M. (2008) Suppression of soybean oleosin produces micro-oil bodies that aggregate into oil body/ER complexes Molecular Plant 1: 910-924.
Schmidt, M.A., Lafayette, P.R., Artelt, B.J. and Parrott, W.A. (2008) A comparison of strategies for transformation with multiple genes via microprojectile-mediated bombardment. In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plants 44: 162-168.
Livingston, D., Beilinson, V., Kalayaeva, M., Schmidt, M.A., Herman, E.M. and Nielson, N.C. (2007) Reduction of protease inhibitor activity by expression of a mutant Bowman-Birk gene in soybean seed. Plant Molecular Biology 64:397-408.
Moravec, T., Schmidt, M.A., Herman E.M. and Woodford-Thomas, T. (2007) Production of Escherichia coli heat labile toxin (Lt)B subunit in soybean seed and analysis of its immunogenicity. Vaccine 25: 1647-1657.
Joseph, L.M., Hymowitz, T., Schmidt, M.A. and Herman, E.M. (2005) Evaluation of Glycine germplasm for nulls of the immunodominant allergen P34/Gly m Bd 30k. Crop Science 46: 1755-1763.
Herman, E.M. and Schmidt, M.A. (2004) Endoplasmic reticulum to vacuole trafficking of endoplasmic reticulum bodies provides an alternative pathway for protein transfer to the vacuole. Plant Physiology 136: 3440-3446.
Schmidt, M.A., Tucker, D.M., Cahoon, E.B. and Parrott, W.A. (2004) Towards normalization of soybean somatic embryo maturation. Plant Cell Reports 24: 383-391.
Schmidt, M.A., Dietrech, C.R. and Cahoon, E.B. (2004) Biotechnological enhancement of soybean oil for lubricant applications. Chapter in Book entitled, “Synthetic, Mineral Oil and Bio-based Lubricants: Chemistry and Technology” CRC publisher. L.R. Runick (editor).

Research Areas

  • Biochemistry and Physiology
  • Genetics and Epigenetics
  • Genomics, Bioinformatics, and Systems Biology