Our latest opinion paper “Specificity of ERECTA signaling in plant development – one-trick pony or jack-of-all-traits?” on the molecular architecture of ERECTA signaling pathways in different developmental contexts is now online. This was a great collaboration with the group of Laura Ragni and is part of a JXB special edition on molecular specificity. Contributions areContinue reading “April 14th, 2026: Our latest opinion paper is now online”
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Oct 30th, 2025: 1st Place in Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest
Third year in a row, our group has won the annual pumpkin carving contest. This year, the competition was especially strong. Congratulations to the entire team! Great job!
March – July 2025: Laia Xianghuan Aran Vera joined our group for her Bachelor project
Laia Aran joined from the University of Barcelona to work on her Bachelor project, investigating parental effects on early embryogenesis in the genus Arabidopsis and Capsella. It was really great having her as part of our group and we hope, she will return at one point in her scientific career.
Feb. 14th, 2025: Molecular Biology of Plants Conference, Hennef
We had four great days of science at the MBP2025 Conference in Hennef. Great line-up of speakers and amazing talks! Nice to see familiar faces and to get to know the next generation of plant scientists.
Jan. 27th: Ice skating
To relieve some stress after organizing and successfully teaching a new basic microscopy course for the new M.Sc. program, we went ice skating in the nearby ice rink in Reutlingen. No serious injuries reported!
Dec. 9th, 2024: Our latest paper featured in Nature Plants
We are honored that our recent New Phytologist article by Chen et al. “Phosphorylation-dependent activation of the bHLH transcription factor ICE1/SCRM promotes polarization of the Arabidopsis zygote” was featured in Nature Plants Research Highlight: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-024-01886-7 “Yoda screams again”
We left Twitter/X
We are convinced that successful science relies on an open mind. Our scientific models are the most accurate that we can come up with based on the current knowledge, but they will be replaced by more accurate models in the future based on experimental results. Our work this is based on scientific facts, not opinions.Continue reading “We left Twitter/X”
Nov. 15th, 2024: Another winning pumpkin
During the week of Halloween, we combined the Institute Happy Hour with a pumpkin carving contest. There was an amazing turnout with ten groups competing. We are proud to announce that we came in first again (but the competition was fierce).
Nov 15th, 2024: New Phytologist paper went online today!
We are happy to see our latest manuscript finally in print!It’s an exciting story about differential, cell-type specific outcomes of transcription factor regulation by MAP kinase-mediated phosphorylation. Read the full story here: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.20265
Nov. 12th, 2024: Chiara Leuzzi received her Bachelor’s Degree
Congratulations!
Bayer lab 