Follow the members of our Department of Molecular Plant Sciences at the University of Freiburg and stay updated on the latest news: go.bsky.app/2zSQBeQ

Check out this exciting online and FREE mini symposium on roots, featuring not one but two Freiburg-based @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @dompsfr.bsky.social talks by @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social and @kevindaniel.bsky.social 🌱

Seasonal greetings from Freiburg 🌱 The Molecular Plant Physiology Division wishes our colleagues, collaborators, and the scientific community a joyful holiday season and a healthy, inspiring New Year. Thanks for the shared curiosity and passion for plant science — excited for what 2026 brings!

📣 The CIBSS Team is hiring! We are looking for someone who is passionate about helping early-career researchers develop their skills, qualifications and career prospects🧑🏽‍🔬🔬🫱🏽‍🫲🏾 ➡️ Coordinator of Early-Career Programs and Diversity Management 🗓️Deadline: Jan 18, 2026 🔗 uni-freiburg.de/en/job/00004...

👉iGEM Freiburg is recruiting motivated members for its 2026 team! 🧬🚀 Don't miss out and apply by Dec 30: kurzlinks.de/op05 🥳Read the report of their success in the 2025 iGEM Competition: kurzlinks.de/lcwr #iGEM #SynBio #UniFreiburg @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @fsbiologiefreiburg.bsky.social

🌱 Spotlight on #CIBSS #NextGenSignallingScientists! Plant biologist @rimchaudhury15.bsky.social shows how curiosity drives discovery: plants can 'remember' rain, helping them survive flooding and adapt to a changing climate. 📖 Read more: kurzlinks.de/tc7v #PlantBiology #WomenInSTEM #LifeScience

ReskiLab at the Freiburg Christmas market.

Team Xmas lunch with the traditional cookie decoration competition. Which is your favorite?

Happy to share our latest preprint: Linking biosurface reactivity and photosynthesis to investigate Sphagnum mosses as peatland engineers #sphagnum #moss #moosstart #paludifarming www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Happy to share our latest paper: The symbiosome space needs to be continuously cleared from demethylated pectins to keep rhizobia happy. Former PostDoc Chao Su took this story with him when moving back to China and finished it off. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #PlantScience; @uni-freiburg.de

End of the year celebrations with lab 🎄🎊

Now out: The expansin EXPA1 is required for both inter- and intracellular infections of Lotus roots. The study was led by Jesús Montiel (UNAM, Mexico) and Jens Stougaard (Aarhus, Denmark) with @blace.bsky.social from our team doing lots of the imaging. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Working with an international team means being invited into new worlds — including Christmas traditions I’d never encountered before. Feeling grateful for this cultural richness. 🎄🌍 Can you guess what this is?

Celebration season is here — time for the traditional DOMPS PI Apéro! ✨ Xmas wishes from all of us 🎄💚 @dompsfr.bsky.social #PlantScience

Christmas Brunch with the group.

Congratulations Nico van Gessel on your excellent PhD defense. Nico is the 58th PhD student I had the pleasure and honor to supervise.

Less is bad and more is bad! This is how @jennyrussinova.bsky.social (from @viblifesciences.bsky.social) started her talk, illustrating how roots tightly control brassinosteroid synthesis and signaling to balance cell division and elongation. 📅 Dec 1 | 🕥10:15 #PlantScience bsky.app/profile/jenn...

How do root stem cell niches change with age? Yanling Yu (from Thomas Laux's group) mapped the Arabidopsis columella stem cell niche using single-nucleus transcriptomics, revealing early niche reorganization and new gene functions. Stay tuned for their manuscript! 📅 Nov 28 | 🕥 10:15 #PlantScience

Die #UniFreiburg wird in 31 von 57 Fächern in den „Global Rankings of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2025” der #ShanghaiRanking Consultancy geführt. Weltweit wird sie in fünf Fächern in den Top 100 geführt, in drei Fächern zählt sie international zu den 50 besten Institutionen. ufr.link/shanghairanking-25

Today we heard the PhD progress update of @aroessling.bsky.social (from @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social). She is undoubtedly the best illustrator within DOMPS, making her talk on vacuoles, cell walls and FERONIA’s role in cell expansion very engaging. 📅 Nov 21 | 🕥 10:15 |📍KS 00.009 #PlantScience

It’s finally out! 🎉 Work led by former PhD student @wei-xiao-botany.bsky.social , in collaboration with @bayerlab.bsky.social and @bertderybel.bsky.social AINTEGUMENTA phospho-switch regulates bilateral stem cell activity during secondary growth. 🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #PlantSciences

We are proud to be part of the excellent research environment at the University of Freiburg and are excited to contribute to the UFR2040 agenda with the whole university community! #sparkingthechangethatmatters

Together with @zukunftskolleg.bsky.social and Tübingen College of Fellows, FRIAS is offering #EarlyCareerRescueFellowships. Open to researchers from all nationalities & represented disciplines | 1-7 years postdoc experience | 2 years btw 7/2026 and 11/2028 👉 uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...

Opportunity for postdocs (all nationalities). Affected researchers can reach out to us about options in CIBSS / signalling research

How do plants elongate in shade? This morning @scourbier.bsky.social (from @plantphotobiology.bsky.social) revealed how shade boosts TOR activity and how TOR and auxin signalling tightly interact to drive hypocotyl growth in Arabidopsis. A talk that filled the room! 📅 Nov 14 | 🕥 10:15 #PlantScience

I am very happy to see @sophiezoe.bsky.social @dompsfr.bsky.social amongst this year's fellows

📣ASPB is happy to announce the 2026 Plantae Fellows, an impressive group ready to bring their best to this resource for the global plant science community!🌱 Read more: buff.ly/CDI47lq #PlantScience

Our University @uni-freiburg.de with @friasunifreiburg.bsky.social has also just lunched this initiative for rescuing ECR scientists in needs. uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f.... Our lab can host a 🌱 fellow.

Stuck in the US as a postdoc due to the current political nightmare? Consider to join us in Freiburg @dompsfr.bsky.social @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social #plantscience

If you know postdocs in the US whose work is restricted or becoming difficult, there are new fellowship possibilities in the south of Germany. Please, forward this information to them: uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f... Our lab in Freiburg can also serve as a host — happy to discuss options.

Thanks a lot for inviting me @elkebarbez.bsky.social . It was really an exciting visit and I enjoyed it a lot to talk to old friends and get to know new people. Really a perfect day 🌱❣️

Enjoying an inspiring lecture by Sjon Hartmann from University of Freiburg in front of Biotechnology students at the ESBS University Strasbourg Biotech Day 2025

How do roots sense phosphate and iron? Discover the PDR2–LPR1 pathway with @cnaumann123.bsky.social (from @ipbhalle.bsky.social), and see how it links nutrient sensing to ER quality control and autophagy. Learn how roots adapt in Pi-poor, Fe-rich soils! 📅 Nov 7 | 🕥 10:15 | 📍 KS 00.009 #PlantScience

Science days at Europa-Park! 🌿 Science, thunderstorm, a little bit of sunshine and curious minds with @dobrogojski.bsky.social at Europa Park! Special thanks to @elkebarbez.bsky.social for the GMO basket. #PlantScience #ScienceIsFun #Outreach #CuriosityDriven #PublicEngagement #ScienceForEveryone

🎬 Great feature from Baden TV Süd on @uni-freiburg.de's efforts & successes in its #ExcellenceStrategy! 🌍 The #ExcellenceClusters #CIBSS and #FutureForests play a vital role in driving interdisciplinary research and innovative applications for real-world impact. ➡️ Watch here: kurzlinks.de/w7wj

The Cell Wall as a Biophysical Gatekeeper of Iron Homeostasis in Plant Roots Yesterday, Chenlu Liu (from the @elkebarbez.bsky.social group) revealed how dynamic cell wall charge regulates iron uptake in plant roots, acting as a reversible ion filter that shapes nutrient balance. #PlantScience

🌿 Join the #CIBSS & dompsfr.bsky.social Joint Seminar! 🧬 Dr. José Estevez estevezjosem.bsky.social (CONICET, Argentina / UNAB-CBV, Chile) on signaling pathways in plant root hair development under stress. 📅 Thu, Oct 09 · 10:15–11:00 📍 Biol. II/III, KS 00.009 🔗 kurzlinks.de/wegb

A strong start to the semester at @uni-freiburg.de, @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social! 🌱 The Department of Molecular Plant Sciences (DOMPS) introduced its working groups, sparking lively conversations with many curious and motivated master’s students.

Here’s a sneak peek from @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social new poster featuring all the exciting projects we’re working on! My section explores the evolutionary role of PILS proteins in Chlamydomonas. Come join us for the intro in BIO I today at 13:50 & ur Master thesis. #plantbiology #masterthesis

A question of death ☠️ and life 🧬 Yesterday we hosted @moritznowack.bsky.social (from Ghent University and @viblifesciences.bsky.social), their research on root caps uncovers the gene regulatory and molecular mechanisms coordinating differentiation with developmentally programmed cell death.

So proud of @rimchaudhury15.bsky.social for winning best oral presentation award at #ISPLORE2025JP 🥇🤗☔🌱

So proud of our team members @aidamaric.bsky.social @kevindaniel.bsky.social @rimchaudhury15.bsky.social and @advaitagashe.bsky.social presenting their work on flooding and hypoxia responses at #ISPLORE2025JP 🤓🌱🌊☔ #plantscience

New leadership for #CIBSS! Welcome Sonja-Verena Albers as new spokesperson & congrats to Claudine Kraft on her confirmation. Together with Jürgen Kleine-Vehn, they’ll lead CIBSS into its #NextChapter – following Wolfgang Driever & Carola Hunte. More info: kurzlinks.de/fkv4

Happy to share our latest publication: Production of human papillomavirus type 16 virus-like particles in #Physcomitrella #photobioreactors It's the first report on the production of #VLPs as #vaccine candidates in a non-vascular plant. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

1/ 🌱 When plants face stress, they often suppress growth to save resources. In our new Science Advances paper, we reveal how: plants repurpose their ER quality control machinery (ERAD) to regulate auxin compartmentalization and thus growth. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We made made it with the team to #ISPLORE2025JP 🌱🌊

Thrilled to share our latest story on the ERAD machinery and how it controls the conditional turnover of PIN-LIKES for acclimative growth www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

TODAY at 12:00 ➡️ We are are excited to host Dr. Tanja Mittag in our Seminar Series! @stjuderesearch.bsky.social @sfb1381.bsky.social @mpi-ie.bsky.social www.stjude.org/research/lab...

Another best presentation award for @aroessling.bsky.social! Congratulations! We are very proud of you @cibss.bsky.social @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @uni-freiburg.de

Proteins can form condensates to boost interactions and gene control. This week @gjjang.bsky.social (from @mpi-ie.bsky.social) shows how plants use them in transcription and epigenetics, and how super-resolution microscopy reveals them in vivo. 📅 Fri, Sep 26 | 🕥 10:15 |📍KS 00.009 #PlantScience