As Bond LSC’s director, Gassmann works with the Vice Chancellor for Research to develop and implement plans for growth of the MU research enterprise. That includes partnering with academic units to attract research groups to MU and Bond LSC — one of the research centers administered by the Division of Research, Innovation, and Impact (RII). He supervises Bond LSC staff that assist in making all our center’s amazing science possible. He enjoys mentoring junior researchers in his lab, who study the plant innate immune system and the pathogens that attack plants.

Gassmann joined MU in 2000 as an assistant professor of plant microbiology and pathology, and he moved into Bond LSC in 2004 when it opened. In 2017, he stepped into the role of interim director of the Bond LSC upon retirement of its third director, Dr. Jack Schulz, and he was named director in 2021. His academic home is the Division of Plant Science and Technology, he is a member of the Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG), and he is a principal investigator at Bond LSC. In 2016, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

His research focuses on the plant innate immune system, in particular, how it is activated and how it is kept in check to prevent harmful side effects such as stunted growth and reduced seed yield when the immune system is overactive. His lab’s current interests include the regulation of immune protein complexes by protein condensation and regulation of translation. This builds on the discovery of new components of a plant’s immune machinery that contribute to tight control of immune and other stress responses. These advances were originally made with the commonly used research plant Arabidopsis and have led to new initiatives to characterize immune system components in lettuce.