Sandip Ghuge completed his Master's degree in Biotechnology at Marathwada Agriculture University in India. He pursued his Ph.D. in the lab of Alessandra Cona at Roma Tre University in Italy, focusing on Plant Amine oxidase in development and stress responses. He was awarded with Doctorate degree in Biology, specializing in Molecular and Cellular Sciences. Currently, Sandip is a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in the Oxidative Stress Signalling group led by Frank Van Breusegem. His research revolves around understanding the role of selenoproteins in stress resilience in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Arabidopsis thaliana. Additionally, he is involved in the development of more sensitive variants of genetically encoded biosensors, particularly roGFP2, aiming to enhance the ability to monitor dynamic redox processes in living cells with higher resolution.

Postdoctoral researcher

My journey in plant sciences integrates plant adaptation to environmental stress, redox mechanisms, and epigenetics. Trained at the University of Perpignan Via Domitia and the University of Toulouse Paul Sabatier in France, I developed expertise in molecular biology and genetics, laying the foundation for my research career. In October 2019, I commenced my PhD under Dr. Jean-Philippe Reichheld's supervision at the Laboratory of Plant's Genome and Development in Perpignan, France. Our research revealed redox mechanisms' significance in plant adaptation to heat waves and their impact on chromatin regulators, including histone deacetylases HDA6 and HDA19. After defending my thesis successfully in May 2023, I began my first postdoc in Prof. Dr. Frank Van Breusegem's lab at VIB-Ugent Center for Plant System Biology in Ghent, Belgium. My initial project focused on uncovering redox-sensitive proteins in the nucleus using redox proteomics. In April 2024, I secured the prestigious MSCA postdoc fellowship to initiate my independent research within the same team. This project involves developing new tools like genetically encoded redox proteomics probes and biosensors to investigate the role of redox regulation in stress granule formation during heat stress.

Lab manager

Robin Pottie graduated in 2017 as Bachelor in Biomedical Laboratory Technology at Odisee Technologycampus Gent. During his bachelor, he worked on a project for Dr. Simon Stael developing genetic and chemical tools to alter the calcium flux in chloroplasts. Afterwards he joined the Van Breusegem lab as a technician and later as lab manager. His main objectives are the support of the lab in general logistics, knowledge transfer, high throughput screens and proof of concept experiments.

Valentina Ivanova's education and work centers mainly around plant breeding and phytopathology. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Horticulture and Viticulture and a Master's degree in Plant Protection and was able to hone her skills in pathogen infection assays, planning and performing greenhouse experiments and data analyses. During her internship at the Department of Plant Genetics, Breeding and Biotechnology at West Pomeranian University of Technology her work focused on the identification of novel dwarfing genes and QTL mapping in rye. Later she joined the Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology as laboratory manager where her team was responsible for the establishment of germplasm collection, identification and exploitation of the most promising candidates via marker-assisted selection and molecular analyses of resistance genes. As part of a previous MSCA staff exchange project her work focused on elucidating the mechanisms of action of different seaweed-based biostimulants which can be employed to enhance crop quality and abiotic stress tolerance. Her work relied heavily on the combined use of multi-trait high-throughput phenotyping and -omic technologies that are capable of detecting changes in the plant's physiology and modulation of gene expression.

Expertise: ROS metabolism and oxidative stress signalling

Amna Mhamdi obtained her Master's degree in Plant Physiology and Biotechnology from Tunis El Manar University (Tunisia) in 2006. In 2007, she started her PhD in the group of Graham Noctor at the Université de Paris Sud (France), studying the role of enzymes involved in glutathione and NADPH reduction in oxidative stress signalling. After obtaining her PhD in 2010, she stayed in the same laboratory and continued as a postdoctoral researcher. From 2016, she joined the oxidative stress signalling group led by Frank Van Breusegem at PSB (Belgium) to study the photorespiratory hydrogen peroxide signalling mechanisms and cysteine oxidation events that occur during plant responses to stress. Since 2023, Amna has been working as a Staff Scientist at VIB-Belgium, Frank Van Breusegem group, with a special focus on understanding the role of redox regulation of transcription complexes and translating key findings observed in Arabidopsis to crop plants. To address research questions in the field of redox and oxidative signalling, Amna is using an integrative approach involving genetics and transcriptomic, proteomic as well as metabolomic profiling.

Jawad has obtained his Master degree in Biotechnology from National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) PIEAS, Pakistan. He did his masters thesis at Microbial Ecology Lab under the supervision of Dr. Asma Imran, where he studied the molecular and genetic mechanisms of drought tolerance in bacteria to utilize their plant beneficial traits during plant-microbe interaction. In July 2022, he started his PhD research in the Oxidative Stress Signaling group of Prof. Dr. Frank Van Breusegem in the VIB-UGent Center for Plant System Biology. He is studying oxidative post-translational cysteine modifications using protein-based thiol traps.

Frank Van Breusegem obtained his Bachelor and Master degree at Ghent University. He is a group leader of the Oxidative Stress Signaling group at the VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology (since 2001); full professor at Ghent University and he recently was elected vice-chair of the Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University). Since his early studies under the supervision of em. Prof. Marc Van Montagu, he focuses on the molecular impact of oxidative stress on plant cells. He obtained his PhD from Ghent University (1997) with work on “Engineering Stress Tolerance in Maize”. Nowadays, the primary objective of the Van Breusegem lab is the identification and functional analysis of regulatory gene and protein networks involved in the oxidative stress response in plants. Ultimately, he aims to translate this knowledge into biotechnological crop efficiency concepts. The lab has played a pioneering role in determining H₂O₂-dependent molecular and physiological responses in plants. The Van Breusegem lab is internationally recognized mainly because of its successful multi-omics driven approaches that allowed to identify several key targets in the oxidative stress response. Frank Van Breusegem has published more than 150 peer-reviewed publications (Clarivate h-index=59), is a frequent invited speaker and is monitoring editor of the leading plant journal “Plant Physiology”.