Long before she stepped into a lab, Lisa Farmer had a taste of plant biology while working in her local K-Mart’s garden shop. Surrounded by aisles of flowers, shrubs, and tools, Farmer’s teenage self was unaware her career would come to be defined by those very things.
Farmer, a recent addition to the University’s Department of Biological Sciences, attended Loyola University Chicago for her undergraduate degree, majoring in biology with the intention of attending medical school. After falling in love with her first genetics course, she started a research assistant position with the genetics department studying retroviruses in soybean. She also shadowed doctors in the pediatric unit at a local hospital, but didn’t enjoy the work the way she’d anticipated.
“If the shoe fits, the shoe fits. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” she said.
Realizing her passion for plant genetics research outweighed her interest in medicine, she pivoted her post-graduate plans to doctorate programs in genetics. She decided on the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which houses the oldest genetics program in the country. There, Farmer focused on Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant in the mustard family with only five chromosomes, often used as a model organism due to its small size and rapid seed production.
“It’s revealed to us all kinds of ways about the genetics, biochemistry, physiology, and anatomy that plants survive on, as well as how they develop, grow, and respond to their environment,” Farmer said. “We can take that knowledge and apply it to other plants.”
After graduate school, Farmer moved to Texas for a postdoctoral research position at Rice University. There, she also worked on Arabidopsis thaliana, applying the research to look at how eukaryotic organelles regulate normal development and response pathways.
She then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), focusing on children's nutrition and analyzing how microRNAs from dietary plants might circulate in our bloodstream and regulate our gene expression.
While still at BCM, she began a teaching position at the University of Houston, leading a class on plant physiology. Eventually, she transitioned to being an instructional assistant professor, teaching thousands of students per year in a variety of different courses – from introductory requirements for non-majors to graduate-level classes for future scientists and healthcare professionals.
She adopted a flipped classroom model that’s remained a foundation of her teaching philosophy, allowing students to learn modules at home before trying interactive activities and experiments that apply that knowledge in the classroom.
“Engage them in a way that they have fun and see the value in it. They should look at the natural world and be curious,” she said of the flipped classroom model.“Then, learn how to think critically and apply the skills they’re learning.”
Farmer moved to South Bend this past July, crediting Notre Dame’s status as a Catholic institution as encouragement to apply for a job here.
“Because of the history of Catholic priests growing and seeing the value of studying plants… it means that it’s a welcoming environment to study all types of living things.”
She was also interested in moving closer to home, missing the food, culture, and her family in the Midwest. South Bend also offered an “aesthetic joy” with the seasons changing and lots of green compared to concrete-heavy Houston.
At Notre Dame, Farmer leads a Course Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) course that teaches freshmen how to pursue and conduct research. Its current focus is on how plants mediate stress in environments facing climate change. Students look at plant mutants under different stress conditions and analyze their responses, collecting data helpful to both Farmer, the department, and collaborators in the plant field. It also allows students to continue their research past the end of course and apply their new knowledge to other courses and research projects.
“It opens up possibilities for future students to come in and investigate not only open-ended questions, but also plan new types of modules and experiments to introduce new types of research for the course.”
It’s also a unique style of course that diversifies students’ understanding of new types of science, like plant genetics, that they might not have been previously familiar with.
“I like seeing them loosen up and have fun learning in the lab too.”
In her free time, Farmer enjoys following the Chicago Cubs. She’s been enjoying her return to the Midwest and time at Notre Dame so far.
“When you feel like the Cinderella slipper fits you, you know you’re in the right place!”
Originally published by at science.nd.edu on May 27, 2026.