Predoctoral fellow

Emma obtained her Master’s degree in Biochemistry-Biotechnology at Ghent University in 2022. For her Master thesis, she did an Erasmus exchange to Bremen University (Germany), where she worked on the interaction between rice and the endophyte Azoarcus olearius. After her studies, she started a PhD (FWO fellowship) in the research group of Prof. Dr. Sofie Goormachtig, under supervision of Dr. Sylwia Struk, at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology. Her PhD research concerns the interaction between soybean and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, a symbiotic interaction which is called nodulation. In particular, she focuses on the regulation of nodulation and the receptor kinase NARK in this signalling pathway.

Post-doctoral fellow

Judith is a postdoctoral scientist in the group of Prof. Sofie Goormachtig at VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology (FWO fellowships) since 2019. She obtained her PhD in 2016 in the group of Prof. Dirk Inze, where she focused on the regulation of Arabidopsis leaf growth by sugars. After her PhD, she joined the group of Dr. Vanessa Wahl at the Department of Prof. Mark Stitt in the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (Potsdam, Germany), where she studied the effect of limited nitrogen availability on flowering and tuberization in Arabidopsis and potato. In her current research, she uses this expertise to investigate plant-microbe symbiotic interactions in different plant crops. Her main focus is unraveling the role of sugar signaling during soybean and pea nodulation.

In 2021, I graduated with a Master of Science in Biology from Ghent University. My thesis, conducted at the Rhizosphere lab, focused on identifying bacteria capable of assisting lettuce in coping with cold stress. Following graduation, I joined the Lab of Microbiology under the supervision of Professor Anne Willems at Ghent University with Professor Sofie Goormachtig of the Rhizosphere lab as my co-supervisor, contributing to the 'Soja in 1000 tuinen' project. Here, I participated in a large-scale isolation campaign aimed at discovering rhizobia strains within soybean root nodules capable of nodulating soybeans at northern latitudes. Subsequently, in 2022, I obtained an FWO grant to investigate the underlying mechanisms behind variations in nodulation efficiency among different Bradyrhizobium strains, with the goal of optimizing this interaction.

Naomi obtained her master’s degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from Ghent University in 2020. For her master’s thesis she performed an Erasmus exchange to the Sainsbury lab of Cambridge University (SLCU), where she worked on the role MtLSH1 and MtNOOT1/2 during early nodule organogenesis in Medicago truncatula within the group of Prof. Dr. Giles Oldroyd. Currently, Naomi is performing her PhD research (FWO-SB fellowship) at the Rhizosphere group of Prof. Dr. Sofie Goormachtig, this time shifting her focus to another symbiont: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). During her PhD, Naomi uses diverse single cell and -nuclei transcriptomics and proteomics approaches to obtain a better understanding of the immunity-related crosstalk occurring during the tomato-AMF symbiotic interaction.

Marjon obtained her Master's degree in Biology at Ghent University in 2021. For her master thesis she worked in the lab of Sofie Goormachtig on the molecular pathways involved in the plant growth promoting effect of Caulobacter RHG1 on Arabidopsis thaliana. After her studies she started as assistant in the Rhizosphere group, conducting her PhD research under supervision of Dr. Sylwia Struk. Her research focusses on elucidating which proteins are involved in the autoregulation of nodulation pathway in Medicago truncatula.

I completed my Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology at Ghent University in 2021. During my studies, I conducted my Master’s thesis research in the Vascular Development lab at PSB. Presently, I am pursuing my PhD through a collaborative effort involving the company Aphea.Bio and two research labs at PSB: the Advanced Live Cell Imaging and Rhizosphere labs. My current research focuses on unraveling the mode-of-action of biocontrol agents against fungal pathogens in wheat.