Published in Probe Volume 6 (Final): July 1996
Dr. David Grant is a USDA/ARS geneticist at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, and curator of the SoyBase database.
Grant joined ARS in 1995, after 12 years at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, in Johnston, Iowa. At Pioneer, he was project leader for the Molecular Genetics Project, where he developed and used molecular markers in plant breeding. His focus was on maize, though throughout his career he has also studied and published widely on Neurospora and Chlamydomonas.
Before joining Pioneer, Grant was an assistant research professor in the Department of Biochemistry, St. Louis University School of Medicine, where he was previously a postdoctoral associate. Before his work in St. Louis, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the departments of Biology and Zoology at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. He is a native of Houston, Texas.
As SoyBase curator, Grant, with the assistance of Marcia Imsande, maintains and updates the database and does presentations and training. He is also involved in making modifications to the database models, such as expansions to include new data types and changes to old models to facilitate their use. In the future, he plans to add new data types, such as graphical pedigrees, QTL maps, composite genetic maps, and others. "I hope SoyBase will evolve into an indispensable tool for soybean geneticists and breeders," he says.
Grant encourages contributions from the soybean community. "SoyBase can only be as useful as the data it includes. If there is something that should be included or changed in the database, please let us know, " Grant says. "In particular, we are interested in mapping information so we can include it in the composite genetic map. We can accept data in any format."
Contact:
Dr. David Grant
USDA-ARS
Department of Agronomy
G304 Agronomy Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1010 Phone: (515) 294-1205
Fax: (515) 294-2299
E-mail: dgrant@iastate.edu