Mathias Cohen - Predoctoral fellow

Mathias Cohen graduated in 2012 as Expert in Biotechnology Engineering from Sup’Biotech, Villejuif (France). Then he obtained a Master in Biology, with a specialization in molecular and cellular biology, at the University of Sherbrooke (Canada) in 2017. During this research master, he worked in the group of Peter Moffett, that focuses on the study of the plant innate immune system. He studied the translational control of Arabidopsis thaliana genes in the specific context of the Effector-Triggered Immunity, as well as the molecular mechanisms governing processing bodies formation during plant-virus interactions. In 2018, he started to work as an engineer in the lab of Isabelle Jupin, in the Institut Jacques Monod, Paris (France). His work concerned the study of plant-pathogen interactions between Arabidopsis thaliana and the Turnip Yellow Mosaic Virus. In October 2020, he started a joint PhD between the CCARS group of Pr. Graham Noctor (Climate Change and Redox Signaling, IPS2, Universite Paris-Saclay, France) and the OSS group of Pr. Frank Van Breusegem (Oxidative Stress Signaling, PSB, VIB-UGent, Belgium). The topic of his PhD is the elucidation of the mechanisms in play in the activation of the salicylic acid pathway by environmental and redox factors in Arabidopsis thaliana.

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.

Muhammad Iqbal obtained his bachelor degree in biochemistry and master degree in biotechnology from COMSATS university Islamabad, Abbottabad. He studied nutritional and genetic diversity of on-farm cultivated buckwheat plant by using SSR markers during his master degree program. He joined Oxidative stress signaling research group of  Professor Van Breusegem Lab since January 2022 for his doctoral program under the fellowship of HEC and UGent.  

Patrick Willems obtained his master degree at Ghent University after plant studying cold stress signaling in plants during six months in the Vaughan Hurry lab in Umeå (Sweden). Afterwards, he continued studying plant abiotic stress signaling during his PhD in the oxidative stress signaling group of Frank Van Breusegem in collaboration with the proteomics group of Kris Gevaert. This led to multiple first-author papers and several co-authorships, mostly entailing integrative –OMICS analysis of transcriptome, proteome or other datasets. As a postdoctoral researcher, he was shortly active in the proteogenomic annotation of microbial species. More recently, he is focusing on studying post-translational modifications (PTMs) in plants. Recently published work on this topic incudes the characterization of S-sulfenylation at a site-specific level in Arabidopsis and the development of an integrative plant PTM database, ‘The Plant PTM Viewer’. The bridging theme in his research is the integration and interpretation of large (multi-)omics data to make new discoveries or help addressing specific biological research questions.

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.