October 2020
Master student
Molly Clark is joining us for her first project, as part of the MRes Molecular Plant and Microbial Science. She will help us developing a novel genetic screen assay for root electrotropism. Welcome and good luck!
September 2020
PhD student
Eleonora Moratto is happily transitioning to "PhD student" status, after completing her MRes in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in our Department. Her PhD project is in collaboration with the Tolga group in deciphering the bioelectric control of root-pathogens interactions. Sounds like fun!
Social distancing in the lab
Labs are open, but social distancing is at 2 meters. Everything is slow and cumbersome, but we are trying to restart our experimental science. Wish us good luck!
July 2020
Talk
GS attended the symposium organised by the Physics of Life network at Imperial, with a talk titled "Feel the force: electrotropism in plant roots"
May 2020
Publication
GS contributed to a quick review on bioelectricty, in collaboration with the Bio-Electrical Engineering Innovation Hub at Warwick Un. The Review is titled "Bioelectrical understanding and engineering of cell biology" and is published on the Journal of Royal Society Interface.
April 2020
Master student
Eleonora Moratto is joining the lab for her second project towards her Master in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. She is actually a BBSRC DTP student who will stay with us for her PhD too! Her project is in collaboration with the Tolga group in deciphering the bioelectric control of root-pathogens interactions. Welcome to the lab!
March 2020
Successful funding
Our lab is leading a fantastic collaboration with Dr Connor Myant (Dyson School of Design Engineering), Dr Gunnar Pruessner (Mathematics) and Prof. Chris Braddock (Chemistry), on a project titled "A novel bio-hybrid module for vertical and micro-gravity farming", which just received generous funding from the President’s Excellence Fund for Frontier Research. A fantastic opportunity to explore the integration of electrotropism with 3D printing to develop bio-hybrids for the next generation of vertical farming (and space farming!). It was recently mentioned on the College News feed. We look forward to getting this started!
Lock-down
Like most of the labs in the UK, we are temporarily closing the lab and transferring all activities online and remotely. We'll see you on the other side...
February 2020
Final year projects
Three undergraduate students are joining the lab for their final year projects: Kush Desai, Chris Leung and Alicia Gomez Gimenez. Kush will work with Matt on bioelectric patterns during root regeneration, Chris on root hair patterning in external electric fields and Alicia will tackle a literature project on crop cultivation techniques in microgravity conditions. Welcome everybody, it will be fun!
Visitor
Dr Miriam Gifford (Warwick Un.) visited the lab and gave a fantastic talk on root nodulation to our Department. It has been a great day of science and a nice opportunity to catch up with an old friend from NYU!