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Krisztina Ötvös at the EB Research Institute in Salzburg, where she works on translational research for Epidermolysis bullosa. Photo: Bianca Plörer, DEBRA Austria
About 13 years after leaving UPSC, Krisztina Ötvös looks back on a career driven by scientific curiosity, a desire to take on new challenges and a commitment to doing high-quality science. For her, every career move built on the scientific thinking and transferable skills she had developed before.
Read more: Following scientific challenges across disciplines
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Leonard Blaschek studies how trees build wood and how this shapes one of our most important renewable materials. Photo: Malin Grönborg
Wood is one of humanity's oldest building materials. But before it becomes timber, it is a living tissue. That is what fascinates Leonard Blaschek. As a new group leader at the Umeå Plant Science Centre, he wants to understand how trees build wood and why evolution shaped it the way it is.
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Stéphanie Robert, professor at SLU and group leader at Umeå Plant Science Centre, has been elected to the EMBO Membership. Photo: Erik Abel
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) has elected Stéphanie Robert as one of its newest members. The lifelong honour recognises outstanding contributions to the life sciences and welcomes her into an international community of more than 2,100 leading researchers.
Read more: Stéphanie Robert joins Europe's leading life scientists as new EMBO Member
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As leaves age, plants recycle valuable nutrients before the cells eventually die. The new study identifies arginine as a signal that helps determine when this transition becomes irreversible. Photo: Clément Boussardon
Before a leaf dies, plants recover nutrients that the rest of the plant can reuse for growth and survival. Researchers at Umeå Plant Science Centre have now identified a metabolic “point of no return” linked to the amino acid arginine. The study suggests that plants use arginine as a signal to determine whether recovery remains possible or whether cells should commit to death, a discovery that could eventually help improve crop resilience under environmental stress.
Read more: Scientists identify the “point of no return” in dying leaves
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Juan Alonso-Serra started his research group at Umeå Plant Science Centre in early 2026. Photo: Malin Grönborg
Water moves through every growing plant, changing the pressure inside cells. Juan Alonso-Serra, a new group leader at Umeå Plant Science Centre, wants to understand how plants sense these changes and turn them into molecular signals that guide growth.
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Potato plants during the greenhouse experiments in which beneficial soil bacteria were applied to the roots. Photo: Benedicte Albrectsen
Researchers have shown that two soil bacteria can work together to influence potato development. The bacterial partnership triggered distinct responses in potato plants and was associated with earlier tuber initiation and improved yield under greenhouse conditions. The findings suggest that combinations of beneficial soil bacteria could become a valuable tool for potato growers in the future.
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Barbora Pařízková is studying root development in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings (photo: Gabrielle Beans).
A chance encounter between a plant physiologist and a computational biologist at Umeå University’s interdisciplinary "IceLab Camp" has developed into an ongoing collaboration exploring how plants regulate root growth in response to nutrients. Mathematical models were a crucial component to bypass a major experimental bottleneck.
Read more: Graduate course collaboration sparks new plant growth insights
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In the DYNAMO project, Laura Bacete Cano uses advanced microscopy to study how the structure and signalling of the cell wall influence plant development (photo: Mattias Pettersson, Umeå University).
The cell wall gives plants strength and structure, but contrary to what one might assume, it is not a rigid structure. Instead, it is highly dynamic and constantly interacts with the rest of the cell and the neighbouring cells as the plant grows. There are still many open questions about the nature of these interactions and this is what Laura Bacete Cano investigates in her project DYNAMO, recently funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Read more: New project investigates how plants stay strong while growing
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An unmanaged forest (left) borders a clear-cut area that is now regenerating (right). Marcus Larsson studied how such changes affect carbon in forests. Photo: Jenny Dahl, 2017
Boreal forests store about one third of the world's forest carbon. But how they should be managed to store more carbon and help mitigate climate change is debated. In his PhD thesis, Marcus Larsson shows that focusing only on trees is not enough, carbon in the soil should also be taken into account.
Read more: Understanding carbon storage in forests means looking at the whole ecosystem
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Stéphane Verger (right) with his first PhD student, Özer Erguvan (left), who defended his thesis in October last year (Photo: Anne Honsel).
A fascination with nature set Stéphane Verger on the path to a career in plant science, where he now leads a research group studying how plant cells interact and respond to physical forces during growth. Recently appointed docent, he reflects on his academic journey, the challenges along the way, and the motivation behind his research.
Read more: Discussing ideas is what he enjoys most in his work