Leaders of the Future

Prof. Luke Mackinder

Professor in Plant Biology - Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP), University of York

Luke is a UKRI Future Leader Fellow and a 2018 SEB Presidents Medallist for Cell Biology. His lab is applying high-throughput, systems and synthetic biology in diverse algae to rapidly dissect, predict and build CO₂ fixing pathways. This data is being used to generate a blueprint for the engineering of efficient CO₂ uptake systems in plants, with the goal of improving photosynthesis and ultimately crop yields and biological based carbon capture systems. Luke did a Marie Curie Funded PhD at the GEOMAR-Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany and the Marine Biological Association of the UK. Followed by a 4-year postdoc at the Carnegie Institute for Plant Sciences, Stanford, before starting his own group at York in 2016. The Mackinder Lab is currently funded by the BBSRC, a BBSRC/NSF-Bio partnership award, EPSRC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

: http://www.mackinderlab.com
: @mackinderlab

Prof. Caroline Gutjahr

Director of Department 1: Root Biology and Symbiosis and Research Group Leader "Mycorrhiza and Root Biology", Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP) in Potsdam-Golm

Prof. Caroline Gutjahr is the Director of Department 1: Root Biology and Symbiosis and Research Group Leader: "Mycorrhiza and Root Biology" at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology and the 2018 SEB Presidents Medallist for Plant Biology. She investigates the developmental biology and function of arbuscular mycorrhiza, a symbiosis between plants and beneficial soil fungi, which enhances plant nutrition with mineral nutrients. Using a combination of molecular biology, genetics, cell biology and biochemistry, she aims to understand plant molecular mechanisms, which regulate and execute remodelling of plant cells that allow arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi to colonize these cells. Furthermore, she is fascinated by the question of how molecular mechanisms interconnect plant and symbiosis development and how this may allow plants to orchestrate arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis with their physiological needs under changing environmental conditions. She cares about agricultural applications and has started using natural variation genetics to investigate the genetic basis of symbiosis-mediated increases in plant performance in the greenhouse and in the field.

After studying Biology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, Caroline received her first training in arbuscular mycorrhiza research in the laboratory of Paola Bonfante at the University of Turin, Italy, where she studied the effect of fungal signaling molecules on root starch metabolism. For her PhD and a short Postdoc, she joined the lab of Uta Paszkowski at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and investigated arbuscular mycorrhiza development in rice. She then moved to the University of Munich (LMU), Germany to establish her own group supported by the Emmy Noether program of the DFG and hosted by the chair of Martin Parniske. Caroline received an ERC starting grant and was appointed as a Tenure Track Professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2017 and received tenure in 2021. She recently joined the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam-Golm.

Prof Dr Ir Florian T Muijres

Chair of the Experimental Zoology Group, Wageningen University

: https://www.wur.nl/ezo
: florian-muijres
: @floriantm

Dr Oliver Castell

Oliver started his lab in Cardiff in 2014 and was awarded the 2016 SEB Presidents Medal for his work in membrane-based artificial cells and the study of membrane proteins at the single molecule level. He is co-scientific lead on current EU project "Artificial Cells with Distributed Cores to Decipher Membrane Protein Function (ACDC)" and leads recently awarded EU project concerning the interfacing of live and artificial cells to build next generation hybrid tissue models. Originally a pharmacist by training, he then undertook a PhD in microfluidics for optimising chemical reactions before post-doctoral work at Oxford University where he developed his interest in the cell membrane, membrane protein biophysics and synthetic biology.

His research group in Cardiff develop tools and technologies for understanding fundamental membrane biology, often using single molecule techniques. In turn this understanding is then applied to engineer next generation soft-matter smart materials inspired by biology. In this regard, we are particularly interested in how self-assembled and compartmentalised systems can give rise to emergent and higher-order function, that we believe can be harnessed in the development of new biotechnological tools which may find future use in therapeutics, diagnostics and as adaptive soft-matter materials.
 

Dr. Marjorie Lundgren

Lancaster University

Marjorie is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and 2021 SEB Presidents Medallist in Plant Biology. She came to the Lancaster Environment Centre in 2018 as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and won the Rank Prize New Lecturer Award in 2019. Prior to Lancaster, Marjorie did postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a visiting fellow at Harvard University, did her PhD and postdoctoral work at the University of Sheffield, and worked in industry at Mendel Biotechnology in California. She has been an active member of the SEB Plant Environmental Physiology Group throughout her academic career.

Her research group studies the evolution, biogeography, and eco-physiology of the vast array of photosynthetic diversity found in nature to identify the precise modifications that created the diverse range of photosynthetic metabolisms seen today. Her own research focuses on characterising and utilising photosynthetic diversity, with a particular focus on C₃-C₄ intermediate phenotypes and C₂ photosynthesis. Her current work aims to engineer the rare C₂ mode of photosynthesis into C₃ Brassica crops to improve yield and stress tolerance of these important nutrient-dense crops. 

: http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/lundgrenlab/
: @Marj_Lundgren

Dr Erika Eliason

Erika recently started a new position as the Associate Dean of Science and Horticulture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in BC, Canada. Prior to this transition, she was an Associate Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara for seven years. Erika received her BSc from Simon Fraser University, MSc and PhD from the University of British Columbia, and held an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Sydney and Carleton University. As an ecological physiologist, Erika uses a combination of field and lab-based studies to investigate how fish cope with anthropogenic stressors (e.g. temperature, fisheries interactions). Much of her research focuses on how climate change affects physiological performance across populations, age, body size, and sex in marine and freshwater fishes. Tackling both basic and applied questions, Erika’s research is informing conservation policy and enhancing the management of natural resources. Erika has served on the editorial board for ICES Journal of Marine Science, Journal of Fish Biology and Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.  Dr. Eliason has been a Co-Editor of the Fish Physiology series since 2020. She was awarded the Cameron Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Zoology in Canada from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, the Boutilier New Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, and the President’s Medal for the Animal Section from the Society for Experimental Biology.

: https://erikaeliason.com/