Kevin Chu was a postdoctoral researcher at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Doug Allen's lab. His research is focused on determining the metabolic pathways affected by tobacco leaves engineered to produce high levels of lipids or to express alternative photorespiratory bypass pathways. For the RIPE project, Kevin used 13CO2-labeling studies to determine altered fluxes through photosynthetic and photorespiratory pathways. Kevin earned his bachelor's degree in biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University and later went on to earn his doctorate in plant science at Purdue University.