ERC SYNERGY Project HYDROSENSING

Enjoy the picture to see moments from the visit — from the Robin Hood statue to the lab and evening strolls through Nottingham! 🌿

@uniregensburg.bsky.social

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The visit highlighted the spirit of our project: connecting scientists across borders and disciplines to advance cutting-edge research together to uncover the mechanisms plants use to perceive water stress.

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During this visit, Christine Ziegler @ziegler-lab-ur.bsky.social joined Malcolm Bennett in their lab at the University of Nottingham, while Eilon Shani @eilonshani.bsky.social also happened to be visiting the same research center — a perfect coincidence for a productive and friendly reunion!

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From Sep 28th to Oct 1st, three of our PIs met in Nottingham for an in-person exchange of ideas and progress discussions. Over the days, the team engaged in:

🔬 Lab tours & hands-on sessions
💻 Project webinars
🍽️ Group lunches and dinners
💡 Discussions to spark ideas for collaborations

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Congratulations, to the Nottingham University team, specially Dr Poonam Mehra (in the picture)! 🌱

Poonam Mehra with the new ERC-funded vertical confocal platform to image roots growing more ’naturally’

Exciting news from the @uniofnottingham.bsky.social lab!🔬

They have just set up a new ERC-funded vertical confocal platform that will allow to image root systems growing in more "natural ways"

This setup will open up new opportunities to study plant development in unprecedented detail

MC 2025: We came, we saw, we won🏆 🏆! Amazing team on a fantastic time at the Microscopy Conference in Karlsruhe.
Get this: two of our posters won Poster Prizes! We're pretty sure it was our perfect blend of science and questionable doodles in the margins. @ziegler-lab-ur.bsky.social

Hydrosensing team eonline meeting audience

Back from summer & team meetings are buzzing again!!🧑‍🔬

To a good start, Barak Mitman from @eilonshani.bsky.social shared work on xerobranching-associated genes & transporters 🌱

We also welcomed many new faces, especially from Nottingham, making our calls bigger than ever: 26 people, 4 countries!! 🤩

JXB 75th Anniversary Symposium SESSION 4: FUTURE New Plan(t)s Chairs: Franziska Fichtner & Ola Skirycz 19 September | 1.30 PM | Edinburgh INVITED SPEAKERS Assoc Prof Nicola Patron University of Cambridge Recoding Regulation: Towards predictable network engineering Dr Franziska Fichtner Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf Trehalose 6-phosphate coordinates sugar status with hormone signalling and plant development Dr Devang Mehta KU Leuven Re-engineering plant chronobiology: from genome to proteome and from molecules to future geographies

🚨 Registration closes TODAY! 🚨

🌟 #JXB75 Daily Highlight 🌟

📅 Sept 19 – Final Session
🔮 FUTURE – New Plan(t)s 🧬

Exploring emerging technologies & synthetic biology with:
✨ Nicola Patron, Franziska Fichtner & Devang Mehta 🎤

👉 bit.ly/JXB75

#JXB75 #PlantScience 🧪

I enjoyed attending the 13th SPPS PhD student conference in Tromsø!
I got the chance to present my poster about my PhD topic that I am doing in collaboration with @hydrosensing.bsky.social in the lab of @hamannlab.bsky.social.
Thanks for having me!

Policy Assistant, EMBO Policy Programme – EMBO Your role  As Policy Assistant, you will support the daily operations of the EMBO Policy Programme and contribute to projects on topics such as research assessment, research integrity, and…

EMBO is #hiring a Policy Assistant for the EMBO Policy Programme – Apply now!

www.embo.org/vacancy/poli...
#JobOpening #JobSearch #CareerOpportunities 🧪

The mechanical properties of Arabidopsis thaliana roots adapt dynamically during development and to stress Mechanical properties of plant cells and tissues change dynamically, influencing plant growth, development, and interactions with the environment. Despite their central roles in plant life, current kn...

👉 Alonso Baez, L., Bjorkoy, A., Saffioti, F., Morghen, S., Amanda, D., Ticha, M., … & Hamann, T. (2025). The mechanical properties of Arabidopsis thaliana roots adapt dynamically during development and to stress. bioRxiv, 2025-07. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Plant roots don’t just rely on genes... physics shapes them too 🌱

Research shows plant roots can adjust their stiffness + softness within HOURS to keep growing, even under stress.

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🌱 Announcing our brand new webinar series all 'aabout' #plantscience & #sustainableagriculture 🌱

Starting 23rd September with talks on #CRISPR in crops from:
🌾 @sadiyehayta.bsky.social
🍓 #ECR Ryan Creeth
🥔 @annalsapplbio.bsky.social author Karam Mostafa

Register for free: buff.ly/qdflQbB

One of the key aspects influencing morphogenesis is mechanics. We mapped the mechanical properties of living roots at the tissue and cellular levels using Brillouin microscopy and molecular rotors.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

He introduced the fundamentals and recent developments in CRISPR, sparking curiosity (and questions!) from groups not directly involve with this line of research.

Thanks to everyone who joined, we’ll now take a summer break during August, and return in September.

#PostDoc #Hydrosensing

Today, Amichai Berman, PhD student from TAU - @eilonshani.bsky.social - deliver an engaging seminar on CRISPR; the 1st session on this & 3rd seminar overall in our ongoing series for PhD students & PostDocs.

With 13 attendees across the 4 different teams of the project.

#CRISPR #PhDLife #Science

Congrats to the RUN-Hydrosensing team! Proving that even on a biologically relevant timescale, you can still snag second place! Silver is golden! @hydrosensing.bsky.social

Photos of our 2025 editorial interns: 🇳🇴 Luis Alonso Baez (NTNU) @luisalonsobaez.bsky.social‬ 🇩🇪 Vittoria Clapero (MPIMP) 🇧🇷 Níkolas Mateus (USP) 🇳🇬 Henry Njoku (Ibadan) 🇺🇸 Deeksha Singh (UC Davis) @sdeeksha1994.bsky.social‬ 🇭🇰 Katie Watson (HKU) @katiemwatson.bsky.social‬

📝 EDITORIAL

In JXB’s 75th year, Editor-in-Chief John Lunn reflects on the journal’s evolution and looks ahead to future directions - including the announcement of our 2025 editorial interns! 🌱🎉

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 #JXB75
@sebiology.bsky.social

Not only small model plants! 🌱

#Hydrosensing team at Tel Aviv (Shani Lab) is carrying out large-scale CRISPR libraries in crops.

@sara-morghen.bsky.social giving a great talk about her PhD project involving ABA and mechanics at #PlantCellWallMeeting2025 in Vancouver. @hydrosensing.bsky.social

Francesco Saffioti from @ntnu presenting results from brillouin work in the @hydrosensing.bsky.social project at the international brillouin workshop in Perugia.

Arrived together with @sara-morghen.bsky.social to the beautiful UBC campus in Vancouver for the Plant Cell Wall Conference 2025. Ready to discuss the relation between cell walls, water sensing, abscisic acid and mechanobiology. @hydrosensing.bsky.social #plantcellwalls

Congratulations to Prof. @eilonshani.bsky.social Eilon Shani, #Hydrosensing PI, on being elected to EMBO 2025! 🎉

This honor recognizes his outstanding contributions to plant molecular genetics and scientific excellence @embo.org

www.embo.org/press-releas...

Outstanding life scientists elected to the EMBO Membership – Press releases – EMBO Sixty-nine new members join the community of leading life scientists in Europe and beyond

Welcome and congratulations to the 60 new members and 9 associate members who have been elected to the EMBO Membership! This honour celebrates #research excellence and outstanding achievements in the #LifeSciences. 🧪

Learn more here:
www.embo.org/press-releas... #EMBOMembers2025

Malcolm Bennett & Danielle Colyer w Marc Van Montagu, the legendary pioneer who co-discovered Agrobacterium DNA transformation; the foundation of plant genetic modification.

Malcolm Bennett catching up with Tom Beeckman, one of the driving forces behind ICAR

Moments from #ICAR2025 by HS team members

1️⃣ Malcolm Bennett & Danielle Colyer w Marc Van Montagu, the legendary pioneer who co-discovered Agrobacterium DNA transformation; the foundation of plant genetic modification 🧬🌱

2️⃣ MB catching up with Tom Beeckman, one of the driving forces behind ICAR 💪

YouTube video by Euro-BioImaging Communication Plant Imaging Expert Group: Discovering how plants sense water stress

Wed 28th June, Euro-BioImaging ’s Plant Imaging Expert Group featured Hydrosensing in a webinar session.

youtu.be/lj9HA2TpJvo?...

👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ @hamannlab.bsky.social, @ziegler-lab-ur.bsky.social & Malcolm Bennett (@uniofnottingham.bsky.social)

🌐 hydrosensing.eu/2025/06/plan...

Happy to see this paper www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
in @science.org showing how ROS regulate auxin signalling and control root branching @uniofnottingham.bsky.social & Durham University @hydrosensing.bsky.social @ukri.org @erc.europa.eu Many congratulations to the team!

Want to know more about Cryo-EM? We have you covered!

👇

cryoem101.org/chapter-2/#p...

In the very 1st session this Tuesday, @greg-madej.bsky.social, from @uniregensburg.bsky.social @ziegler-lab-ur.bsky.social, presented how their expertise is applied within the project; specially the use of Cryo-EM in the study of membrane-embedded proteins.

🌐 www.uni-regensburg.de/biologie-vor...