#TODAY Join us for two joint CIBSS and @dompsfr.bsky.social seminars on 20 April: 1) Prof. Dr. @christatesterink.bsky.social (@w-u-r.bsky.social, Netherlands) | 10:00 - 11:00 2) Prof. Dr. Ronad Pierik (@w-u-r.bsky.social, Netherlands) | 12:00 - 13:00 📍 KHS, Bio II/III (Schänzlestr. 1, Freiburg)

🌿 PhD opportunity in forest molecular ecology! Study how trees and their microbiome respond to climate stress in the ECOSENSE forest 🌳 🧬 RNAseq | qPCR | Fieldwork | Interdisciplinary research 📅 Deadline: April 20, 2026 @uni-freiburg.de

Looking forward to this new @focalplane.bsky.social webinar series! Our microscopy expert @blace.bsky.social will be one of the speakers in the first session.

Thanks for this initiative! Great idea. Happy to see @blace.bsky.social from our lab @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social and involved in imaging approaches @sfb1381.bsky.social kicks it off. Hope to see many people online.

We are excited to launch a new webinar series, Macro to micro: quantitative plant imaging across scales, organised by @ajcellbio.bsky.social and @joemckenna.bsky.social. Our first webinar will featured talks from @blace.bsky.social and Simon Gilroy. focalplane.biologists.com/2026/03/30/n...

Super proud of this gang! #proudPI #plantscience

Last but not least, a huge thank you to our amazing organizers @hengqi.bsky.social, @carlos-rc.bsky.social, @rimchaudhury15.bsky.social, @advaitagashe.bsky.social, and @kevindaniel.bsky.social for making the symposium inspiring and full of great #PlantScience! 🙌 And thank you all for joining!

Celebrating excellence at our 4th DOMPS Symposium! 🎉 Best Paper of the Year went to @seinabnoura.bsky.social, and Best Poster prizes were awarded to @jsalfeld.bsky.social, @aroessling.bsky.social, and @sophiezoe.bsky.social. Incredible work by all! 👏👏👏

Jürgen Kleine-Vehn (@kleinevehnlab.bsky.social) reflected on how big ideas start small, something puzzling, recurring, or arising by chance. That the right conditions, such as time, tools, environment, and people, are key. So he would invest in creating conditions where ideas can likely grow big.

Pitter Huesgen (@degradomics.bsky.social) joked that €100M would disappear quickly, if he would just buy mass spectrometers. So he spoke about what fascinates him: proteases. His favorite, ICP55, trims destabilizing N-terminal residues, helping stabilize the mitochondrial proteome.

Andreas Hiltbrunner (@plantphotobiology.bsky.social) would explore how life adapts to extreme environments, from ecological colonization of harsh habitats to the evolution and possible emergence of life. Many of his ideas were tied to one specific landscape, the beautiful glaciers.

Ralf Reski (@reskilab.bsky.social) would invest in moss bioreactors to produce biopharmaceuticals. Using moss as a scalable platform, his vision focuses on manufacturing human proteins (such as factor H) for medical applications, combining plant biotechnology with drug production.

Sjon Hartman (@hartman-plantlab.com) would keep studying flooding resilience in plants. He would spend 5M on better lab facilities, a puppy room, and 5M on a DOMPS villa. The remaining 90M would fund a collaborative Molecular Plant Science hub with shared growth and phenotyping facilities.

Laura Ragni (@lauraragni.bsky.social) would head first to the Alps and then to the tropics, to study cork cambium stem cells. By comparing species with different protective bark layers, using large-scale single-cell sequencing, she aims to understand how this lifelong tissue forms and regenerates.

Annegret Wilde (@freecyano.bsky.social) proposed scaling up the Azolla–cyanobacteria symbiosis inspired by the Arctic Azolla event, when massive Azolla growth helped lower atmospheric CO₂. Her vision includes mega-scale Azolla bioreactors capturing CO₂ while replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

To close the symposium, our professors answered one (or both) of two questions: 💭 What would you research with €100M? 🌍 If you could study anything, what would it be? Seven perspectives on curiosity, ambition, and science. 🧵 #PlantScience

Very happy to have experienced this years @dompsfr.bsky.social Symposium at the beginning of my PhD. So inspiring to see the amazing work of fellow PhD students!

Our second keynote @likeyoda1.bsky.social gave a stellar talk on stomatal patterning in the Arabidopsis embryo 🌱

Our excursion to Syngenta Crop Protection Research Stein offered insights into seed care, chemistry, and product development. From designing active compounds to creating practical crop protection solutions, one key message stood out: innovation starts with “thinking like a farmer.”

Incredible job of the @dompsfr.bsky.social organizers #ProudPi

Super proud of the team organizing this year's @dompsfr.bsky.social #plantscience symposium 🌱 We had a blast!

A strong but thought-provoking statement by Malcolm Bennett on the 3rd day of our @dompsfr.bsky.social symposium. Perfect primer for lots of #plantscience discussion today 🌱

We had such a great time at Syngenta Stein! 🌱 Science, smiles, and great company🍀. —4th DOMPS symposium excursion

@ottlab.bsky.social presented work on how plants control microbial entry into root cells. The study shows how a nanodomain-localized protein reorganizes the actin cytoskeleton to allow symbiotic microbes to enter and establish beneficial partnerships. bsky.app/profile/rece...

“We still don’t know what’s going on, but we’re having fun on the way.” - @likeyoda1.bsky.social (from @unituebingen.bsky.social) Margot’s keynote explored how cell identity is regulated during plant embryogenesis, from the heart to torpedo stage, through precisely timed asymmetric cell divisions.

"If you don't understand the soil, you don't understand root biology." - Malcolm J. Bennett (from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social) We started day three with Malcolm’s keynote on why roots must be studied in real soil to truly understand their growth and behaviour. #PlantSci

Anup Kumar (from @uni-freiburg.de) introduced how artificial intelligence and machine learning are shaping modern biological research. The workshop highlighted how computational approaches can support data analysis, pattern detection, and biological discovery in increasingly complex datasets.

@urbandesire.bsky.social (from @mpi-ie.bsky.social) led our first workshop on curating scientific content for effective communication. From crafting engaging ideas to reaching diverse audiences, participants explored ways to share their research. #SciComm

I am excited to announce that we have two open positions on our recently funded MYBstery M-WEAVE (NWO-DFG) project! 1) Postdoc in my team at Utrecht University (NL). www.uu.nl/en/organisat... 2) PhD in the team of @lauraragni.bsky.social at University of Freiburg (DE). (See thread)

#CIBSS is happy to support our local #PlantScience community and to facilitate scientific exchange and networking. Have a fantastic meeting full of meaningful interactions, exciting science and of course lots of fun together!

Naira had a great time - thank you for organising such a lovely day! #DOMPSFR #Sequencing #Symposium #Genomics #Novogene

We are pleased to support the DOMPS Symposium taking place in Freiburg this week: dompssymposium.wixsite.com/domps The New Phytologist Foundation supports events that further innovation and advancement in plant-focused research around the world: www.newphytologist.org/grants-award...

Free feel to stop by and explore our posters!🥳 the 4th DOMPS symposium is running!!!

☕ After a nice coffee break 🍪 we continued with the first talk by Dr. Naira Movsisyan (@novogene-europe.bsky.social) on different sequencing techniques. If you have questions about sequencing, you can visit her at the Novogene stand throughout the symposium.

An essential part of our symposium is the Poster Speed-Dating, where our researchers (bachelor/master/PhD students) present their latest results in 5 minutes (+2 minutes Q&A). A fast and effective way to catch up on the newest research across the DOMPS community.

We started our 4th departmental symposium with a short introduction from our PhD representatives. We are very grateful for their work! If you would like to join a wonderful group of people and help drive change at the university level, reach out to them. 🙌🏻

Opening of this year's @dompsfr.bsky.social Symposium by @kevindaniel.bsky.social and @advaitagashe.bsky.social 🌱 Look forward to an exciting 3 days for our @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social #plantscience community 👍🏻

Happening from tomorrow onwards and organized by our @dompsfr.bsky.social PhD students @hengqi.bsky.social @kevindaniel.bsky.social, @rimchaudhury15.bsky.social , @advaitagashe.bsky.social and @carlos-rc.bsky.social. Exciting!

Following last week’s seminar on rhizobial infection genes, @nnebel.bsky.social (also from @ottlab.bsky.social) explored how legume lectins function in intracellular symbiosis with rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi, highlighting shared mechanisms of these ancient symbioses. 📅 Mar 20 #PlantScience

How do we engineer crops to fix their own nitrogen? @magda-tsitsikli.bsky.social (from @ottlab.bsky.social) studies legume symbiosis with nodule-forming bacteria to uncover the basis of this partnership, and build a toolkit to extend nitrogen fixation to other crops. 📅 Mar 13 #PlantScience

“If you see this picture, I don’t have to tell you which direction the wind is blowing.” 🌬️🌳 Thorsten Hamann (NTNU) used this example of plant adaptation to introduce how Brillouin microscopy reveals changes in stiffness and viscosity in Arabidopsis roots under osmotic stress. 📅 Mar 6 #PlantScience

Another paper of @elkebarbez.bsky.social team, out this month. Check it out

The lab of @elkebarbez.bsky.social strikes again 👇 Cell wall charge acts as a tunable electrostatic gate controlling iron availability in roots. Really nice work linking extracellular physics with nutrient homeostasis.

Want to image apoplastic pH in plants? 🔬 Two new papers from our team offer a full workflow plus open access analysis tools. Congrats to @aroessling.bsky.social, Niklas Mayle and @lguerard.bsky.social Nature Protocols: rdcu.be/e7R2E BMC Methods: lnkd.in/dctpWJ3X Happy Imaging!

Symposium preparation in progress ✂️ Name badges, last-minute logistics. Getting everything ready for the 2026 DOMPS Symposium in Freiburg! @kevindaniel.bsky.social @advaitagashe.bsky.social @rimchaudhury15.bsky.social @Carlos

🧬 How can lasers help identify immune cells? How do we know if there are changes in DNA? And how can we track proteins inside cells? Recently, 21 motivated students visited CIBSS to explore these questions and experience signalling research hands-on. 🧪🔬 🔗 kurzlinks.de/1rab

🚨 PhD Position in Plant Molecular Biology 🌱 We are looking for a motivated PhD student to join our team to study root protective barriers. If you are interested in confocal microscopy, cell wall biology, and plant development, this project might be for you! Please share! #PlantScience #PlantSciJob

Happy to share our latest work in collaboration with the lab of @pengbo10.bsky.social. Here, we describe that a formin protein mediates the polarity switch from root hair to infection thread growth during symbiotic interactions. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

📢 #CIBSS research highlight! Prof. Dr. Thomas Ott @ottlab.bsky.social helped identify SYFO2, a protein that lets legumes 🫛☘️“open the door” to nitrogen-fixing bacteria. 🦠 The team even activated it in tomato 🍅 — suggesting this symbiosis could be engineered in new crops. 🌱 🔗 kurzlinks.de/v7bi

New #CIBSS publication from the Jessen Lab! 👇