Past IEB Seminars
2025
December 2 2025, Travis Lee, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA, Decoding Development and Morphogenesis through Single-Cell and Spatial Atlases in Arabidopsis.
December 2 2025, Leonardo Jo, Wageningen University & Research, Exploring the role of pioneer factors as gatekeepers of plant development and environmental responses.
December 1 2025, Patricia Baldrich, UC Davis Genome Center, USA, Extracellular RNA: A New Frontier Beyond Cell.
November 13 2025, Leonardo Bassi, Terrestrial Ecology department, NIOO-KNAW, Defence traits as mediators of biotic feedbacks in a long-term plant diversity experiment.
November 12 2025, Prof. Dr. Markus Künzler, Institute for microbiology – eth Zürich, Switzerland, Insights into the inducible layer of a mushroom’s innate defense system against nematodes and bacteria.
October 14 2025, Dr. Jonas Lembrechts, E&B; University of Utrecht, Dr. Babak Naimi, QBD; University of Utrecht, Remote Sensing of Biodiversity.
October 10 2025, Dominik Henrik Zak, Aarhus University, Denmark department, Restoring Peatlands: A Biogeochemical Perspective with Five Milestones.
September 29 2025, Dr. Giorgio Perella, Associate Professor of Genetics, Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, Italy, Integrating epigenetic and transcriptional signals during plant perception of environmental cues.
May 22 2025, Stanislav Kopriva, Institute for plant sciences, University of Cologne, Sulfur containing metabolites in plant microbe interactions.
April 3 2025, Dr. Arsheed Sheikh, Plant-microbe interactions, RNA modifications: an emerging frontier of plant-microbe interactions.
March 17 2025, Prof. Dr. Ive de Smet, Flemish institute for biotechnology (vib), Ghent, Unravelling temperature-mediated signalling in plants.
March 13 2025, Professor Jenniver Pett-Ridge, lawrence livermore national laboratory, Life and death in the soil microbiome: linking microbial traits with carbon cycling.
March 6 2025 Dr. Ir. Janna M. Barel, Assistant professor, Ecology & Biodiversity, Come rain, come shine, Peatland ecosystem functioning under shifting climatic conditions.
February 21 2025, Priya Ramakrishna, EPFL, Switzerland, Unveiling salinity stress at the subcellular level with a novel cryo-elemental imaging approach.
February 20 2025, Jonas Lembrechts, Utrecht University, Diverging microclimate change and its implications for the world.
February 12 2025, Prof. Heribert Hirt, Plant Sciences at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, Harnessing the power of desert microbiomes to make heat and drought resistant plants.
January 8 2025, Professor Jurriaan Ton, University of Sheffield, From recall to reset: the role of dna (de)methylation in plant immune memory.
January 8 2025, Professor Alga Zuccaro, University of Cologne, emerging properties in beneficial plant-microbe interactions.
2024
December 3 2024, Dr. Matthew Struebig, University of Kent, Maximising the value of conservation set asides in oil palm agriculture.
October 24 2024, Prof. Dr. Moussa Benhamed, IPS2 institute - Universite Paris-Saclay – France, Exploring the chromatin-based regulation of enhancer promoter contact and its impact on gene expression.
August 9 2024, Prof. Dr. Nemat Oliver Keyhani, Professor & LAS Distinguished Chair in Natural Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, Fungal pathogens and mutualists: infection and symbioses.
August 9 2024, Prof. Dr. Igor Grigoriev, Head Fungal and Algal Genomics Program, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Towards 10.000 fungal genomes.
August 5 2024, Dr. Samuel Martins, Department plant pathology, University of Florida, USA, Supercharging the soil: Harnessing the phytomicrobiome for plant health.
June 14 2024, Dr. Benoît Bertrand, Research Director of CIRAD (Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development), Montpellier, France, Breeding of new coffee varieties: a response to climate change?
June 3 2024, Prof Dr. Sarah Brosnan, Georgia state university, Using economic games to study cooperation across non-human primates.
April 24 2024, Francesco de Bello, Functional Diversity Lab, Desertification Research Center (CIDE) for the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), Valencia, Spain, Intraspecific trait variability within and across generations: Implications for coexistence and stability.
February 7 2024, Dr. Yuti Cheng, Duke University USA, Role of microbiota in regulating autoimmunity in plants.
February 7 2024, Dr. Marc Somssich, Max Planck, Germany, (Single) cell biology of plant-microbe interaction signaling.
February 7 2024, Dr. Stephanie Watts-Fawkes, Univ. of Adelaide, Australia, Molecular biology of plant-mycorrhiza interactions.
February 6 2024, Dr. Arsheed Sheikh, Kaust, Saudi Arabia, M6A RNA modifications in regulating plant immunity and abiotic stress.
February 6 2024, Dr. Yuan You, Technical University Munich, Germany, Molecular understanding of plant-microbe interactions using eintact.
January 17 2024, Adriana Uscanga, Ecological change across scales: a synthesis of field and remote sensing data.
January 17 2024, Jonas Lembrechts, How fast is the climate truly changing? The overlooked role of microclimate change in ecology.
2023
December 18 2023, Dr. Nathaly Guerrero Ramírez, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Department of Silviculture and Forest Ecology of the Temperate Zones, Above and belowground biodiversity in a changing world.
December 7 2023, Joris Skrakel, WUR, Feeling Green: Chasing the origins of plant’s sense of touch.
November 11 2023, Tonni Grube Andersen, MPIPZ, Cologne, The importance of barriers in a functional relationship.
October 26 2023, Miguel A. Blázquez, professor at the Polytechnical University of Valencia, Spain (ibmcp-csic), Evolution of multisensory integration in plants.
October 2 2023, Sergey Shabala, University of Western Australia, Towards Green Revolution 2.0: cell-based phenotyping for abiotic stress tolerance.
September 25 2023, Julieta Mateos, FCEN, UBA, Argentina, Posttranslational regulation of posttranscriptional mechanisms in plant stress responses.
September 20 2023, Violeta Angulo, Ecology and Biodiversity, Utrecht University, On the rooftop of an entangled world.
September 20 2023, Gerlinde de Deyn, Soil ecology, Wageningen University, The living soil: essential for soil health in (agro) ecosystems.
September 20 2023, Dr. Amandine Erktan, Institute of research for development (IRD), Montpellier, Top down regulation of microbial communities by soil fauna.
September 20 2023, Prof. Claire Chenu, INRA France, Agroparistech, Are SOC storing soils more vulnerable to wetting-drying events in the climate change context? A laboratory evaluation for temperate agricultural soils.
September 20 2023, Dr. Robert Jan Bleichrodt, Microbiology, Utrecht University, Transport in fungal networks.
September 20 2023, Dr. Emilia Hannula, Leiden University, Fungi in multifunctional soils.
September 20 2023, Dr. Mariet Hefting, Ecology and Biodiversity, Utrecht University, Final discussion, wrap-up, and conclusions.
September 14 2023, Daan Weits, Plant-Environment Signaling, Utrecht University, Oxygen sensing and Jason Gardiner, Translational Plant Biology group, Utrecht University, DNA methylation.
July 11 2023, Prof. Dr. Christine Queitsch, University of Washington, Genome Sciences, Learning the grammar of crop regulatory dna for precise engineering of gene expression.
June 29 2023, Miguel de Lucas, Durham University, United Kingdom, Regulation of vascular development by light and more.
June 15 2023, Edouard Evangelisti, Phytopathology, Wageningen University, Logistics: the Achilles' heel of Phytophthora plant pathogens?
June 1 2023, Hannah Schneider, Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University, Root Phenotypes for Crop Improvement.
May 15 2023, Victoria Mironova, Associate professor at Radboud University, Breaking down barriers: unleashing the power of single cell transcriptomics with computational tools in plants.
May 4 2023, Pallavi Singh, assistant professor at University of Essex, Rising with the flow: enhancing plant resilience by understanding the interplay between vascular structures, aquaporins and water use in cereal crops.
May 15 2023, Prof. Dr. Kees van Oers, Extra-ordinary professor "personality" - behavioural ecology at wur and senior scientist at animal ecology Nioo, The epigenetics of behaviour and cognition; stability and origin of variation in methylation and chromatin states in the great tit.
2022
September 3 2022, Professor Fumiaki Katagiri, University of Minnesota, USA, How can plants stay in this world while their pathogens can evolve much faster than plants?
July 26 2022, Dr. Macarena Marín, group leader at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany, Be my guest: How legumes host endosymbiotic rhizobia.
July 25 2022, Dr. Tomohisa Shimasaki, RIKEN BioResource Research Centre, Tsukuba, Japan, The function of plant specialized metabolites in the assemblage of plant root microbiota.
June 29 2022, Prof. dr. Thorsten Nürnberger, Tübingen University, Germany, Surface receptor signaling in plant immunity.
June 28 2022, Prof. Philippe Reymond, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, Switserland, Molecular responses of Arabidopsis to insect eggs.
June 23 2022, Sara Diaz, Cluster Leader Applied Bioinformatics, Wageningen University and Research, NL, Bioinformatics approaches to approach tandem gene breeding in Solanaceae crops.
June 20 2022, Prof. dr. Sarah Gurr, Professor at University of Exeter, UK, Global food security challenged by emerging fungal pathogens.
June 20 2022, Prof. dr. Gero Steinberg, Professor at University of Exeter, UK, Cell Biology to understand fungal pathogenesis and develop new control strategies.
March 28 2022, Professor Christian Fankhauser, Centre for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Reaching out for the sun: Molecular mechanism underlying growth adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana.
March 24 2022, Professor Heribert Hirt, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, Center for Desert Agriculture, Desert microbes for boosting sustainable agriculture in extreme environments.
2021
November 25 2021, Dr. Suzanne McGowan, Head of Aquatic Ecology department, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), NL, Chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments as indicators of long-term dynamics in aquatic ecosystems.
October 12 2021, Dr. Federica Locci, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany, Defining plant EDS1-PAD4-ADR1 module as a convergence point for surface and intracellular immune receptor signaling.
2020
October 28 2020, Sarah Courbier, Plant Ecophysiology Utrecht in collaboration with Plant-microbe interactions Utrecht, NL, How far-red light enrichment modulates tomato resistance towards botrytis cinerea.
October 27 2020, Katie Kathryn Barry, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig & Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, DL, Applying ecological theory in a changing world.
October 21 2021, Prof. Julia Jones, Professor of Conservation Science in the School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, UK, Does conservation work and how do we know?
October 27 2020, Monique de Jager, Department of Animal Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW),NL, An eco-evolutionary perspective on movement.
October 27 2020, Renske Onstein, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, DL, Eco-evolutionary diversification from macro to micro scales.
October 9 2020, Gerrit Polder, Computer Vision & Plant Phenotyping, Wageningen University & Research, NL, Spectral sensing techniques for plant disease detection and phenotyping.
September 23 2020, Marco Thines, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (bik-f), Frankfurt, Germany, Evolutionary implications of oomcyte lifestyles.
July 8 2020, Berkley Walker, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University, USA, Fluxes of carbon through photorespiration.
February 26 2020, Prof. Jacob Weiner, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Applying Evolutionary Theory to Improve Plant Production.
February 6 2020, Prof. Dr. Monika Maurhofer, Department of Environmental Systems Science
ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Double agents in the plant’s service: fluorescent pseudomonads with antifungal and anti-insect activities.
January 21 2020, Prof. Julia Bailey-Serres, University of California, Riverside, USA, Mixed messages: Making, holding, decoding and destroying mRNAs for stress resilience.
2018
May 3 2018, Prof. Prigent-Combaret, Head of the Rhizosphere group, Claude Bernard University Lyon, FR, on New avenues made in deciphering the microbial functioning of the interactome between cooperative bacteria and crops
April 25 2018, Dr. Anna Komor (Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Jena, DE, on Biochemical and Ecological Approaches to Studying Therapuetic Natural Products
March 28 2018, Dr. Pierre Stallforth, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Jena, DE, on Synergy in and Biosynthesis of Natural Products from Microbial Predator–Prey Associations
March 21 2018, Prof. dr. James Bullock, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK, on Human-mediated dispersal and the metapopulation dynamics of wild cabbage
March 21 2018, Dr. Judy Shamoun-Baranes, University of Amsterdam, NL on Flying through the aerosphere: consequences of different strategies
March 21 2018, Dr. Eelke Jongejans, Radboud University, NL, on Cumulative Human Impacts on biRd Populations (CHIRP): a migratory network analysis of Eurasian Oystercatchers
March 21 2018, Dr. Monique de Jager, Utrecht University, NL, on Multi-scale seed dispersal: Optimizing search strategies for plants in fragmented environments
March 21 2018, Jelle Treep, Utrecht University, NL, on Flying cheap; modelling the passive movement of plants and animals
March 6, Prof. Sophien Kamoun, Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK, on Beyond the single gene: NLR network mediates immunity to diverse plant pathogens
February 22 2018, Carmen Vida, University of Malaga, ES, on New perspectives of a traditional technique: the role of the organic amendments in crop protection
February 13 2018, Dr. Keara Franklin, University of Bristol, UK on UV-B control of plant architecture
2017
September 29 2017, Dr. Christopher Anderton, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA. Exploring plant microbiomes using complementary spatial metabolomics techniques.
September 18 2017, Dr. Aidyn Mouradov, Plant and Algal Biotechnology, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Aquatic plants and algae as next generation feedstock for energy and food
September 15 2017, Dr. Dennis F. Whigham, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, USA. Native orchids and conservation – Don’t forget the fungi
June 15 2017, Prof. Sigrid Heuer, Rothamstead Research, UK. Exploring genetic diversity for stress-tolerant and nutrient-efficient crops
June 13 2017, Christian Meyer, The Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin INRA, Versailles, France. Role of the plant TOR kinase in the regulation of translation and metabolism
June 13 2017, Nicolas Dehomme, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå, Sweden. Genome assembly tales from the north, at the Umeå Plant Science Centre
May 11 2017, Prof. Frits Rijkenberg, University of Natal, South Africa . Electron microscopy of early penetration stages of the rust pathogen Puccinia sorghi in maize
May 04 2017, Prof. Sarah Gurr, University of Exeter, UK - Chair FC Donders, Utrecht University. Fungi on the move: a challenge to global food security and ecosystem health
April 18 2017, Dr. Ville Friman, Assistant Professor, Evolutionary Biology, University of York, UK. Rapid evolution in the rhizosphere – implications for plant disease dynamics
March 10 2017, Dr. Zigmunds Orlovskis, John Innes Centre, UK. Multitasking: how a single bacterial effector protein modulates plant development and attracts insect vectors
February 19 2017, Dr. Ben Oyserman, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Microbial community analysis using times series 'omics: from taxonomy to function
February 17 2017, Stephan Pollmann, Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, Madrid, Spain. Finding balance to optimize plant fitness: molecular links between auxin biosynthesis, energy status and defence
2016
December 09 2016, Dr. Fay-Wei Li (Boyce Thompson Institute, New York), Evolution of fern genes and genomes
December 01 2016, Prof. dr. Sheng Teng, (Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, China), The sugar-abscisic acid signaling pathway in Arabidopsis. Interaction of transcription factors ANAC060 and ABI5
November 24 2016, Dr. Jéremié Bazin, (Institute of Plant Sciences Paris Saclay), Using ribosome profiling to discover new small peptides in Arabidopsis
October 13 2016, Prof. Jian Xu, (National University of Singapore, Singapore), A sacrifice-for-survival mechanism protects root stem cell niche from chilling stress
October 05 2016, Dr. Sabine Lüthje, (University of Hamburg, Germany), Climate change, extreme weather events and environmental pollution: Regulation of ROS in stress response and adaptation to abiotic stress
September 20 2016, Prof. dr. Stephanie S. Porter (Washington State University, USA), Coevolution and environmental adaptation in the legume-rhizobium symbiosis
August 30 2016, Dr. Annette Baattrup-Pedersen (Aarhus University, Denmark), The influence of channelisation on riparian plant assemblages
May 24 2016, Prof.dr. John Mundy (Faculty of Science Copenhagen Denmark), Plant immunity & cell death signaling
April 08 2016, Dr. Melvin D. Bolton (Northern Crop Science Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Department of Plant Pathology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, United States), Cercospora beticola genomics – the intoxicating lifestyle of a sugarbeet pathogen
March 17 2016, Prof.dr. Marinus Pilon (Biology Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA), Iron and copper cofactor assembly in chloroplasts.
March 17 2016, Prof.dr. Elizabeth Pilon-Smits (Biology Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA), Secrets of Selenium-Sequestering Stanleya - Molecular Mechanisms and Ecological Effects.
February 24 2016, Prof.dr. Eric Seabloom (Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, University of Minnesota, USA), Nutrients and Consumers in Grassland Ecosystems: Insights from the Globally Distributed NutNet Experiment.
February 17 2016, Dr. Laura Grenville-Briggs (Resistance Biology Unit, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden), Oomycete Pathogens: the good, the bad and the ugly.
February 2 2016, Kaisa Kajala (University of California, Davis, U.S.A.), Mapping the tomato root responses and gene expression in drought and flooding.
January 27 2016, Michael Holdsworth (University of Nottingham, U.K.), How plants use oxygen and nitric oxide to sense and respond to the environment.
January 21 2016, Vicenta Salvador Recatala (Ronin Institute, USA), Wound- and salt-induced electrical signals in plants.
2015
December 10 2015, Pim Lindhout (Solynta, Wageningen), Potato breeding and the impact on food security.
November 25 2015, Richard Splivallo,(University of Frankfurt, Germany), From microbiomes to food science: unravelling the secret aroma of truffle fungi.
October 28 2015, Diana Papp (John Innes Centre, Norwich, U.K.), Host cell homeostasis during pathogen attack in worms (and plants).
October 22 2015, Dennis J. Nuernberg (Imperial College London, U.K.), Intercellular communication in filamentous cyanobacteria.
October 22 2015, Paul Dijkwel (Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand), Life is tough and then you die: not so true for plants.
September 14 2015, Daniel Klessig (Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca NY, USA), Salicylic acid and its binding proteins in plant and human health.
September 10 2015, Kim Hebelstrup (Aarhaus University), Phytoglobins – the plant homologs of hemoglobin.
August 31 2015, Antonio Leon-Reyes (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador), Crosstalk between plant nutrition and plant defense.
August 19 2015, Pauline Trapet (INRA, Dijon, France), Deciphering plant-microbe interactions: Study of the physiological impact and the mode of action of pyoverdine produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens C7R12 on Arabidopsis thaliana.
June 4 2015, Kohmei Kadowaki (Kyoto University, Japan), Mycorrhizas and the ecology of tree community assembly.
May 28 2015 , Ulrika Ganeteg (Umea Plant Science Center, Sweden), Plant organic nitrogen nutrition.
May 11 2015 , Shushu Jiang (UC Riverside, USA), Functional studies on HopZ1a, a type III secreted effector of the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae.
April 29 2015, Lyuba Ryabova (University of Strassbourg, France), The role of target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling in reinitiation of translation in plants.
April 28 2015, Fred Rook (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Plant chemical defence and its dynamic genomic organisation.
April 24 2015, Markus Schmid (Max Planck Institute, Tübingen, Germany), Integration of flowering time signals in Arabidopsis thaliana.
April 17 2015, Gerben van Ooijen (University of Edinburgh, UK), Clocks across taxa: Conserved circadian timekeeping mechanisms.
March 31 2015 , Debabrata Laha (University of Tübingen, Germany), Inositol pyrophosphates in jasmonate perception.
March 20 2015, Guillaume Lobet (Université de Liège, Belgium), Rooting the flowering process: Dealing with the exponential complexity of root systems.
March 18 2015, Yong-Xiu Liu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China), Epigenetic regulation of seed dormancy and germination in Arabidopsis.
March 17 2015, Marina Semchenko (University of Tartu, Estland), Neighbour recognition in plants: patterns, mechanisms and consequences.
March 9 2015, Hideki Takahashi (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan), Intron-mediated enhancement of disease resistance gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana.