Jeffery L. Dangl, a biologist at UNC-Chapel Hill, was part of an award-winning trio of researchers who received the 2025 Wolf Prize in Agriculture “for groundbreaking discoveries of the immune system and disease resistance in plants.”

Plant cells self-destruct to survive. After detecting a pathogen, they set off a chain reaction that ultimately destroys them, preventing disease from spreading. Now, scientists, led by UNC biologist Jeff Dangl, have discovered the mechanism behind this self-destruction.