Research Topics

Stem Cells

                Germ Cell Development

Embryo Development

Translational Stem Cell Research

Cell fates in plant development

The coordination of cell behavior is a prerequisite for the development of multicellular organisms. Each cell has to know what its neighbors develop into and to use this information as a reference for its own development. This requires extensive cell-cell communication to assess the information from adjacent cells as well as mechanisms to derive a cell fate decision from this information that integrates all cells into a meaningful context. We study the mechanisms of cell fate specification using the stem cells of shoot and root meristems, the establishment of the body plan during embryogenesis, and organ formation in ovules in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. One specific interest of our work is to understand the interplay of environmental signals with cellular programming by transcriptional regulation, mikro RNA function, and hormone signaling. We use genetic, biochemical, live imaging, and system biological approaches. In a Translational Biology Approach we are using in collaboration with the University of Nanjing (China) stem cell regulators identified in Arabidopsis to improve regeneration of important crop plants in food and forest industry. Our group is a member of the Signals and Regulatory Networks in Early Plant Embryogenesis (SIREN) inititive, a European trainings program for PhD students, the Centre for Biological Signaling Studies (BIOSS), a part of the German Excellelence Program, and the Trinational Institute of Plant Sciences (TIP), combining leading scientists from Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Strasbourg (France), and Basel (Switzerland).

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