People

Contact details: name@slu.se

Frauke Augstein – Postdoc – Frauke is from Germany and obtained her Bsc and Msc degrees from RWTH Aachen University including an exchange year at the NTNU Trondheim, Norway. She moved to Sweden where she did her PhD at Uppsala University studying plant root xylem developmental plasticity in response to water deficiency and salt in Annelie Carlsbecker’s lab. She is now investigating the genetic basis of graft incompatibility in Solanaceae species, as tomato and pepper, and the molecular regulation of grafting induced dwarfing using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Email: frauke.augstein

Alexandra Bányai – MSc Student – Alexandra is from Hungary and obtained her BSc in biology and an MSc in Plant Biology from ELTE University in Hungary. Currently, she is pursuing a master’s degree at Stockholm University in Genetic and Molecular Plant Science. She joined the lab as her thesis project work. The aim of her work is to explore the effect of graft-induced starvation and stress on root growth and symplastic transport in Arabidopsis thaliana. Email: alexandra.banyai

Ming Feng – Postdoc – Ming is from China and obtained his Ph.D. from China Agriculture University studying postharvest physiology and senescence mechanisms in roses. He is investigating how chemicals affect graft formation and working with conifer grafting. Email: ming.feng

Ellen Fasth – PhD student – Ellen is from Sweden and received her BSc in biology from Umeå University and her MSc in Genetic and Molecular Plant Biology from Uppsala University. Currently, she is investigating the trade-off between defence and regeneration. Apart from science, she enjoys reading, writing and spending time at the summer cottage. Email: ellen.fasth

Jinbo Hu – Postdoc – Jinbo is from China and obtained his PhD at the CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences in Shanghai, where his research focused on unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying the functions of LAZY genes in plant gravity sensing and development. Currently, his research is dedicated to exploring the roles of non-coding RNAs in plant grafting and regeneration processes.

Abdul Kareem – Postdoc- Kareem is from India and obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram. During his PhD, he investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying plant regeneration. On completion of his PhD, he moved to Australia as a Postdoc in the laboratory of Marcus Heisler at the University of Sydney to study the coordination of cell polarity during organ formation. He is currently investigating how plants connect their vasculature during plant grafting and why some plants fail to graft (graft incompatibility). He will specifically look at the graft junction formation in different plant species. Email: abdul.kareem.vk

Martina Leso – PhD student – Martina is from Italy. She received her BSc in Biotechnology from Trento University, and moved to Sweden for her Master studies. She is currently doing her Master thesis project in the lab, focusing on the influences of hormonal signalling on plant parasitism. Email: martina.leso

Charles Melnyk – Professor in Plant Physiology – Charles is from Canada and obtained his BSc Hons degree in Biochemistry at his local university in Ottawa. He moved to the UK where he did his PhD at the John Innes Centre and University of Cambridge with David Baulcombe studying mobile small RNAs. He stayed on in Cambridge as a Research Fellow at Clare College and the Sainsbury Laboratory with Elliot Meyerowitz and Ottoline Leyser where he initiated his research on understanding the developmental basis for how plants graft and how parasitic plants infect. Having worked at a plant nursery for four summers, Charles is a keen botanist but also enjoys road cycling, cross country skiing, jogging and traveling. Email: charles.melnyk

Anna van Wüllen – PhD student – Anna is from Germany and obtained her MSc in Biotechnology at the University of Münster, focusing on phytopathology and plant immunity. She is currently working on her PhD project, which focuses on parasitic plant infections and related reactions and mechanisms in the host plant. Email: anna.van.wullen

Former Group Members

Anna Kokla, PhD student. Now working at 10X Genomics.

Amrit Nanda, Post-doc. Now working at Plants for the Future.

Constance Musseau, Post-doc. Now working at Syngenta.

Shamik Mazumdar, PhD student. Now a post-doc with Simon Stael.

Theo Serivichyaswat, PhD student. Now Chief Operating Officer at BioByteX

Prashanth Ramachandran. Now post-doc with Jose Dinneny.

Ai Zhang, Post-doc. Now an Associate Professor at Northwest A&F University