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The cells on the surface of an aspen leaf form a characteristic jigsaw puzzle-like pattern. The image shows the leaf surface under the microscope. Image adapted from Liu et al. (2026), New Phytologist. CC BY 4.0.
The surface of an aspen leaf looks like a jigsaw puzzle under the microscope. Researchers at Umeå Plant Science Centre have now identified a gene that helps shape these interlocking cells – and discovered that both the gene's activity and the cells' shape change when the tree experiences drought.
Read more: When aspen trees experience drought, their leaf cells change shape
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By Laura García Romañach
Carole Dubreuil shares her fascination with plants through science communication, including her popular science book Incroyables végétaux (“Amazing Plants”). She visited UPSC this summer, when this photo was taken. Photo: Laura García Romañach
Nine years ago, Carole Dubreuil left her position as a plant researcher at UPSC for a career in industry. During her time in academia, she developed a passion for science communication that persists until today. She currently works as Head of the CEO Project Office at ENYO Pharma overseeing and supervising the company’s projects, while making plant science accessible to broader audiences in her free time. For her, science communication complements and balances her professional work.
Read more: Communicating science brings balance to her career
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The Swedish Metabolomics Centre provides researchers with expertise and infrastructure for mass spectrometry-based metabolite analysis. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt.
The Swedish Metabolomics Centre, based at UPSC, has secured continued support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The new funding will strengthen the centre's long-term development and its ability to provide advanced metabolomics services to researchers across Sweden.
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Yanjun Zan plans to study how genes and the environment interact, initially using Arabidopsis as a model system. Photo: Malin Grönborg
Why can the same environmental change benefit one plant but stress another? And could their genetic information help us predict these different responses? These questions are at the heart of Yanjun Zan’s research. As a new group leader at Umeå Plant Science Centre and Integrated Science Lab (IceLab), he combines plant biology, genetics and computational approaches to understand how genetic differences shape plant responses to environmental change.
Read more: Predicting how plants respond to their environment
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Julie Ducla has investigated how plants respond when the roots of neighbouring plants are damaged. Photo: Anne Honsel
Below ground, plant roots grow alongside those of neighbouring plants, but little is known about how they respond when a neighbouring root is damaged. In her doctoral thesis, Julie Ducla shows that healthy plants can detect this damage and redirect their root growth away from it.
Read more: Plants sense damage to neighbouring roots - and grow away
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Laura Bacete Cano (left) and Anna Renström (right) received prizes at the SPPS Conference 2026 in Helsinki. Photo left: Courtesy of Laura Bacete Cano. Photo right: Anne Honsel.
Laura Bacete Cano and Anna Renström from Umeå Plant Science Centre were among the researchers recognised with prizes at this year's conference of the Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society (SPPS) in Helsinki. Laura received the SPPS Early Career Prize, while Anna was one of two recipients of the SPPS PhD Thesis Prize.
Read more: Two UPSC researchers receive awards at SPPS Conference 2026
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Maria Eriksson will spend her upcoming sabbatical at the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge. Photo: Elsa Hertzberg
Maria Eriksson has been awarded a SSF Sabbatical grant from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. The grant will enable her to spend a sabbatical at the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, where she will study how the plant's internal biological clock helps coordinate cell division and growth. We asked her five questions about the project and her upcoming stay[AH1.1] starting in autumn this year.
Read more: Maria Eriksson on her upcoming sabbatical in Cambridge
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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