SPPS Early Career Award is granted to Olivier Keech

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The Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society (SPPS), announced last week that Olivier Keech, assistant professor at Umeå University and group leader at UPSC, receives the SPPS Early Career Award 2017. This award honours young scientists in Scandinavia who proceed well in their scientific career and contribute significantly and independently to plant biology.

Olivier Keech established his research group in 2014 when he became assistant professor at the Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå University. His research focuses on the regulation of metabolism in response to abiotic stresses, notably in response to stress-induced senescence. Olivier Keech wants to understand why and how plants “decide” to sacrifice an organ such as a leaf for the benefit of the rest of the plant. He wants to know how this decision is communicated within the plant body and how the associated metabolic changes, e.g. the recycling and reallocation of valuable nutrients, are regulated.

There were all together four SPPS Award Winners announced by SPPS last week. The SPPS Award goes to Michael Broberg Palmgren from the Department of Plant Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Chuanxin Sun from the Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Uppsala receives the Physiologia Plantarum Award and Kurt Fagerstedt from the Department of Biosciences from the University of Helsinki the SPPS Popularisation Prize. All awards are monetary rewards as well as invitations to the SPPS Congress this summer in Naantali, Finland, where the certificates will be officially presented to the winners.

For more information about the winners and the awards please have a look on the SPPS homepage.

You can find more information about Oliver Keech's research here.

Here you can find a Swedish press release from Umeå University.

The “Mycorrhiza project” builds a bridge between schools and scientific research

Mycorrhiza-project_1920x1080Group picture with the students from Dragonskolan who participated in the Mycorrhiza project, Sabine Kunz (2nd from left in the front row), Elisabeth Uppsäll (5th from left in the front row) and Judith Felten (1st from right in the first row)

[2017-03-24] Today, twenty students from Dragonskolan presented their results from the “Mycorrhiza project”, a six-month project together with Judith Felten’s group from the Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC). The project aimed to teach scientific methodology based on the interaction between mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots.

Do forest trees grow better when their roots are growing in interaction with mycorrhizal fungi? How do those roots look like? How many different fungal species are growing in forest soils and how can we detect them? These were questions the students tried to find answers to. Sabine Kunz, postdoctoral researcher at the UPSC, and Judith Felten, assistant professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, developed this project in collaboration with Dragonskolan.

“We designed the project together with the biology teacher Elisabeth Uppsäll from Dragonskolan in Umeå. Our idea was to bridge the gap between biology lessons at school and scientific research,” says Sabine Kunz. “The students got access to specific scientific methods we are using for our research and gain insight into our work as researchers. There are many things you need to consider when planning experiments. This is best experienced when you do the experiment yourself and evaluate your results.”

“It has been great for us to participate in this project”,Students greenhouseStudents working with fir trees in the greenhouse (Photo: Sabine Kunz)adds Elisabeth Uppsäll. “It is important to get students to understand how scientists work and what methods are used to answer scientific questions. Sabine has been an invaluable link between the students and the UPSC because she is not only researcher but has also experience with teaching at school and she knows how to address students. We have had many nice meetings developing this project and exciting discussions during the full course of the project, weather we were digging up roots in nature or during the final seminar today.”

The students worked in smaller groups with different research questions. They went into the forest and dug up roots and soil and brought it to the lab. There, they used among others, DNA analyses to detect different fungal species in the soil. They tested whether young spruce trees grow differently in forest soil that contained mycorrhizal fungi than spruce trees in commercial planting soil. They observed roots from the forest under the microscope and they investigated whether the architecture of the plant root system changes when it is in symbiosis with the fungi.

“The mycorrhizal symbiosis is really fascinating. It is not visible until you dig up a root and look at it under the microscope but it is very important for the forest ecosystem,” says Judith Felten. “We hope that we could inspire the students by our project and that they now see the forest with different eyes.” 
 
After the experimental part, the students got a crash course in scientific data analysis. They learned how to edit a microscopic image, how to present data in diagrams and graphs and how to interpret results. They presented their results today in short talks to researchers and staff members of the UPSC.

The project was financially supported by the Kempe Foundations.

For more information, please contact:

Judith Felten
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+46 (0)90 786 8435
http://www.upsc.se/judith_felten

Sabine Kunz
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+46 (0)90 786 8628

Elisabeth Uppsäll
Dragonskolan Umeå
Dragongatan 1
903 22 Umeå
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+46 (0)90 16 24 92

More information about Dragonskolan

Stefan Janson receives the Åforsk’s “Kunskapspriset”

Vetenskapslunch2017 SJansson 1920x1080 2Vetenskapslunch February 2017 (Umeå University)
Stefan Jansson, plant scientist at the UPSC and Professor at Umeå University, was awarded the 2017 ÅForsk “Kunskapspris”. He is being honoured for his commitment to transfer scientific knowledge to the public.

The ÅForsk foundation awards every year “kunskapspriset”, a price that values
outstanding contributions to the dissemination of knowledge. Stefan Jansson was awarded this year with the following motivation:

“Stefan Jansson is a committed and untiring public educator who fights well and hard for knowledge. He is constantly active in the public debate, taking part not only in humoristic programmes but also in political debates. He informs about both his own and other’s research to school kids as well as to pensioners. He is active in bringing knowledge into the debate on GMO and organic farming to counteract fact resistance.”

“I feel incredibly honoured and glad”, says Stefan Jansson. “Actually, I think there should be more prizes that encourage researchers to use their knowledge in the public debate. It’s probably never been more important than at present.”

The candidates for the ÅForsk price are nominated by the Universities . One very prominent awardee was Hans Rosling, a Swedish role model in the debate on fact resistance who has received the price in 2006 but has recently passed away. “He has left great footsteps to follow in”, says Stefan Jansson. “very many like me will be needed to fill his shoes”.

Link to the press release from Umeå University 
 
About ÅForsk
 
For more information, please contact:
Stefan Jansson, Department of Plant Physiology
Phone: +46 70-677 23 31
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 

The electronic Multi-Trophic Ecosystem (eMTE): Towards an improved sustainability of Urban Farming

Two persons under a spiral stair setting up the electronic Multi-Trophic Ecosystem with aquariums and plants on the left side and plants in black upright standing pipes on the right sideSetting up the electronic Multi-Trophic Ecosystem at Sliperiet (photo: Olivier Keech)
Six researchers from UPSC developed a concept for more sustainable urban farming. They presented their idea last November at PLATSEN in Umeå, a conference that aims to bring together different actors to discuss about sustainable developments. A short video describing their so-called eMTE concept is now available online.
The concept called eMTE (electronic Multi-Trophic Ecosystem) comprises several stages of a food chain like aquaculture, compost recycling, bioreactors as well as aero-/hydroponics. These so-called trophic layers are electronically controlled and interconnected with each other to form a small-scale ecosystem. Like this, nutrients produced in one trophic layer can support another layer reducing the amount of waste and energy that needs to be invested to produce food. Employing electronics offers great possibilities to monitor the different trophic layers and therefore makes the entire ecosystem more modular, which thus eases its use within complex structures such as found in cities.schemeSchematic overview of the eMTE concept

The eMTE project was initiated by Olivier Keech, assistant professor at Umeå University. His team, namely Nicolas Delhomme, Simon Law, Stefano Papazian, Alonso Serrano, Bastian Schiffthaler and Bernard Wessels, consists of fundamental scientists with different specialisations. All of them are driven by the idea to improve urban farming and urban food production while in parallel increasing the awareness about human relationship to ecosystems.

“It was great to get the opportunity to present our eMTE concept at PLATSEN”, says Olivier Keech, leader of the eMTE project. “We got lots of positive feedback as well as new contacts to collaborate with, which is encouraging. Our idea is to develop this project further so it can be soon integrated into existing and novel urban farming projects.”

PLATSEN is thought as a platform where decision makers, politicians, scientists, NGOs and people from public and private sectors can meet and exchange and discuss ideas about sustainability in an urban environment. The event is initiated by the Swedish Scientific Council for Sustainability in collaboration with several other actors from the public and private sectors e.g. Umeå Municipality and Umeå University.

For more information contact Olivier Keech: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ove Nilsson is elected as new member to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science

OveNilsson 1920x1080
Six new members were elected at the General Meeting of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science on the 11th of January 2017. Ove Nilsson, director of the UPSC and professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, is one of them. The membership honours exclusive recognition of successful achievements in research and outstanding services to science.

The other new members are Rikard Holmdahl from Karolinska Institutet, Ruth Palmer from the University of Gothenburg and Jarone Pinhassi from Linnaeus University and the two Nobel laureates May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, both from the Norwegian Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. All members are divided according to their scientific focus into different scientific disciplines, called classes. Ove Nilsson and Jarone Pinhassi are assigned to the class for bioscience while the other four belong to the class for medical sciences.

There have been three other UPSC researcher elected to the Academy previously: Gunnar Öquist, Göran Sandberg and Stefan Jansson. Today, the Academy has about 625 members, 450 from Sweden and 175 foreign members. It is a non-governmental scientific organisation that awards every year the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences and many other prizes. The members take part in the Academy’s committees and panels and in the selection process for the prizes. The main goal of the Academy is to promote sciences and strengthen their influence in society.

Link to the announcement at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science:
http://www.kva.se/en/News/2017/sex-nya-ledamoter-invalda/

UPSC enters partnership with Swe Tree Technologies and the Belgian VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology to identify genes controlling growth

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[2017-01-19] UPSC and SweTree Technologies announced today that they have entered into partnership with the VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology to accelerate research on tree value and productivity. The joint research collaboration aims to identify new genes for growth increase in trees and is envisioned to strengthen all involved parties. The study results will be published in leading scientific journals.

The joint project of Belgian and Swedish scientists builds on accumulated experience on functional genomics of genes controlling growth in annual plants as well as trees. This partnership combines four important assets: the strong research on tree biology and genomics at UPSC; the excellent industrial tree biotechnology capabilities of SweTree Technologies; the world-leading expertise in plant growth and productivity of the research group of Dirk Inzé (VIB-UGent); and the outstanding expertise in bio-informatics and comparative genomics of the lab of Klaas Vandepoele (VIB-UGent).

“This agreement will bring the UPSC and VIB research environments closer together, by exchanging researchers more frequently and by arranging joint scientific meetings”, says Ove Nilsson, director of UPSC. “We are very excited about this opportunity to deepen our scientific collaborations with the VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology, one of the strongest research environments in Europe for experimental plant research. It is an excellent complement to our research interests and we are especially excited about the possibilites to make cutting-edge comparative genomics analysis between Arabidopsis, maize and poplar trees.”

Read more: UPSC enters partnership with Swe Tree Technologies and the Belgian VIB Center for Plant Systems...

Fascinerande växter – Seminar day about plant research in Umeå on the 9th of March

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Forskare från Umeå Plant Science Centre – Umeå universitet och SLU – berättar om sin forskning.
Populärvetenskapliga föredrag i svenska och engelska.
Kaffe och te i pausen.
Alla är välkomna!
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Researcher from Umeå Plant Science Centre - Umeå University and SLU - talk about their research.
Popular science lectures in Swedish and English
Coffee and tea will be served in the break.
Everyone is welcome!
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Tid: 9 mars kl  12:00 – 16:00
Plats: P-O Bäckströms sal, SLU

Preliminärt program:
 12.00 Välkommen 
  Natalie von der Lehr (moderator, frilansjournalist)
 12.05 Hur vet träden att det är höst? (svensk presentation)
  Stefan Jansson (professor, Umeå universitet)
  På hösten får träden sina höstfärger och bladen faller till slut men hur vet träden egentligen att hösten kommer? Professor Stefan Jansson vid Umeå universitet förklara hur trädens kalender fungerar och varför bladen blir gula på hösten.
 12.30 How do plants make plumbing pipes from cells? (engelsk presentation)
  Sacha Escamez (postdoktor med Hannele Tuominen, Umeå universitet)
  Sacha Escamez, postdoctor at the UPSC, will explain how plants utilize some of their cells to build pipe-like structures that allow them draw water and nutrients in the soil in order to distribute it throughout their bodies.
 12.55 Fotosyntesen - ett samarbete mellan cellens energifabriker (svensk presentation)
  Per Gardeström (professor, Umeå universitet)   
  Per Gardeström, professor vid Umeå universitet, kommer att förklara hur fotosyntesen fungerar för att med hjälp av solljus fixera koldioxid från luften. Han ska fokusera på samarbetet mellan kloroplaster och mitokondrier som är båda delar av växtceller och viktiga för deras energiförsörjning.
 13.20 Traffic in plant cells - sending cargo the right way (engelsk presentation)
  Anirban Baral (postdoktor med Rishikesh Bhalerao, SLU)
  Anirban Baral, postdoctoral researcher at the UPSC, will explain how different compartments with different functions in a plant cell exchange information and material between each other. He will show with specific examples what happens with the plant when the traffic is not regulated properly.
 13.45 Chemicals as tools to dissect plants (engelsk presentation)
  Siamsa Doyle (forskare med Stéphanie Robert's, SLU) 
  Siamsa Doyle, researcher at the UPSC, will talk about the use of chemicals that block proteins controlling plant functions. The effects of these chemicals on the plants can tell researchers a lot about the proteins and their roles in plant growth and development. Like this, chemicals can be used to virtually “dissect” plants and learn more about them.
 14.10 Paus och kaffe
 14.40 Getting together: the fungus-root symbiosis in forest tree (engelsk presentation)
  Judith Felten (universitetslektor, SLU)
  Judith Felten, group leader at UPSC, will talk about the knowns and unknowns of the fascinating mechanism that allows roots and fungi to form a beneficial relationship (symbiosis). The fungus provides soil-nutrients to the tree and receives photosynthetic sugars from the tree. Like this both partners benefit from each other and stimulate each other’s growth. 
15.05 Därför är världen grön – om växter och deras försvar (svensk presentation)
  Benedicte Albrectson (forskare, Umeå Universitet) 
  Benedicte Albrectson, forskare vid UPSC, kommer att tala om hur växter försvar sig med hjälp av kemiska ämnen. Hon ska fokusera på en speciell klass av denna ämnen, som kallas fenoler, och förklara hur hennes forskargrupp analyserar dem.
15.30 Framtidens skogsgenetik med gamla fältförsök (svensk presentation)
  Anders Fries (forskare, SLU) 
  Anders Fries forskare i skogsgenetik ska berätta om vad gamla fältförsök har lärt dem om vedegenskaper och vad molekylärgenetiska studier i dem kan lära dem. Han kommer att ge en översikt.

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