Timo Hytönen
Department of Agricultural Sciences, Viikki Plant Science Centre (ViPS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Title: Flowering time in perennials: genetic regulation and adaptive variation in the woodland strawberry model system
Host: Ove Nilsson
PhD Thesis Defence
Alice Marcon
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology (SLU)
Title: Regulation of flowering time and phenology in Populus trees
Faculty opponent: Timo Hytönen, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Viikki Plant Science Centre (ViPS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Supervisor: Ove Nilsson
Link to PhD thesis:
UPSC technical seminar (UPSCtech)
The speaker will be Laura Morales who will talk about:
Getting started with R: preparing, analyzing, and visualizing data
Would you like to analyze your data with R, but don’t know where to start? Do you consider yourself a beginner in R scripting or have you never used R at all? Would you like to make the transition from Excel to R in order to generate reproducible results and figures?
In this episode of the UPSC Technical Seminar series, Laura will take you through your first steps in (1) preparing your data for use in R, with examples in Excel; (2) loading your data files into R from Excel and other common formats; and (3) writing basic R functions for data analysis (e.g. t-tests, ANOVA, regression) and plotting. All exercises will be done live and you are welcome to bring your laptop if you would like to follow along (install R and RStudio beforehand) or if you would like one-on-one help with your own data.
The UPSCtech seminar series is an internal series organised by PhD students and Postdocs at UPSC to exchange knowledge about different methods and techniques used in plant science.
Contacts: Lucija Lisica (
UPSC technical seminar (UPSCtech)
The speaker will be Laura Morales who will talk about:
Getting started with R: preparing, analyzing, and visualizing data (part 2)
This is the follow-up of the first part presented last week.
Would you like to analyze your data with R, but don’t know where to start? Do you consider yourself a beginner in R scripting or have you never used R at all? Would you like to make the transition from Excel to R in order to generate reproducible results and figures?
In this episode of the UPSC Technical Seminar series, Laura will take you through your first steps in (1) preparing your data for use in R, with examples in Excel; (2) loading your data files into R from Excel and other common formats; and (3) writing basic R functions for data analysis (e.g. t-tests, ANOVA, regression) and plotting. All exercises will be done live and you are welcome to bring your laptop if you would like to follow along (install R and RStudio beforehand) or if you would like one-on-one help with your own data.
The UPSCtech seminar series is an internal series organised by PhD students and Postdocs at UPSC to exchange knowledge about different methods and techniques used in plant science.
Contacts: Lucija Lisica (
Title: Job Interview Workshop
Speaker: Yunchen Sun (Grow Internationals)
Are you curious about the job interview process and how to handle it? Then, join the workshop by Yunchen Sun from Grow Internationals.
In this workshop, we will cover an overview of the interview process and strategies for managing it, including salary negotiation. We’ll also look at how to effectively communicate transferable skills as part of personal branding, particularly for academics transitioning to industry. In addition, we’ll have a practical session on how to prepare for common (e.g. tell me about yourself), uncommon (e.g. If you would be a brick in the wall, what kind of brick would you be?), and inappropriate (e.g. do you plan to have a family within the next 5 years?) interview questions.
As there are limited spots, please register at the latest on 14.04.2025 using the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOuRih0SYgBRUyIWQQYwHH60hBiTdpKXY4NenkbZApgt1EkA/viewform
Your participation will be confirmed via email.
Contact:
For questions, please contact the organisers Laura Tünnermann (
Remko Offringa
Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Title: Plant Rejuvenation: From Somatic Embryogenesis to Polycarpy
Host: Stéphanie Robert
Plants have an extraordinary ability to modify their developmental programs in response to environmental conditions. This developmental flexibility is driven by stem cell niches (meristems), which are established during embryogenesis and become active after germination. It is also reflected in the remarkable regenerative capacity of somatic plant cells, which can rejuvenate and acquire a pluripotent—or even totipotent—state following hormone treatment or the overexpression of specific morphogenic regulators, such as BABY BOOM (BBM) and WUSCHEL (WUS).
In my presentation, I will discuss the broad role of a newly identified morphogenic regulator in Arabidopsis, AT-HOOK MOTIF NUCLEAR LOCALIZED 15 (AHL15), in plant rejuvenation. Elevated expression of AHL15 not only induces the formation of somatic embryos from differentiated cells, but also extends the juvenile phase, delays leaf senescence, and enables monocarpic, herbaceous Arabidopsis to flower multiple times (polycarpy) while exhibiting increased woody characteristics.
ddPCR (Digital Droplet PCR) is a very useful tool for gene expression analysis as well detection of copy number (genomic) etc. There are several advantages to ddPCR (including use of very low amount of RNA, no need for making a standard curve, etc). Let's hope that many group leaders and students and postdocs, technicians and other interested parties can attend.