Jeff Dangl is the John N. Couch Distinguished Professor Biology and an HHMI Investigator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a geneticist interested in the molecular intricacies of the plant immune system. The Dangl lab contributed significantly to the development of Arabidopsis as a model to analyze plant-microbe interactions. They study plant immune receptors and immune signaling, and pathogen virulence factors and their action inside plant cells. The lab pioneered study of the organization and function of plant-associated microbiomes.

Jeff graduated from Stanford University with undergraduate degrees in English (Modern Literature) and Biological Sciences in 1981 and earned a doctorate in the Genetics Department of the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1986 for his studies of genetically engineered chimeric monoclonal antibodies in the laboratory of Prof. Leonard A. Herzenberg. Jeff is a co-founder of AgBiome, LLC, a company exploring the crop microbiome to develop products that reduce environmental risk and improve plant productivity. Jeff was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2007, the German National Academy of Sciences ('Die Leopoldina') in 2003 and the American Academy of Microbiology in 2011.