CEPLAS - Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences

🏆Last week Laura Redzich @amandlaawethu.bsky.social successfully defended her PhD thesis! The research was carried out in the Frommer lab @hhu.de . Congratulations, and best wishes for the next steps in your career! 🎊

🧬⚡ Call for abstracts & participants | GRC 2026 ⚡🧬

Together with Vamsi Mootha, I’m chairing the 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Mitochondria & Chloroplasts (July 19 - 24, 2026). We’d love to see your application.

Thread 🧵👇

Am Welthülsenfrüchte-Tag hat sich IPK-Forscherin Kerstin Neumann mit Kolleginnen und Kollegen zum Abendessen in Quedlinburg getroffen - und natürlich gab es Hülsenfrüchte. Alles andere Wichtige zum Thema Leguminosen erklärt sie im Interview.

➡️Alle Infos: tinyurl.com/27vvvryb

At today's International Day of Women and Girls in Science we’re celebrating the many amazing women researchers like Ellen who push science forward every day. Thanks for contributing to excellent science for tomorrow's plants 🌱 
#WomenInScience #PlantScience

🎉 Congratulations to Mary Ngigi @mngigi.bsky.social ! Yesterday Mary successfully defended her PhD thesis in the group of Petra Bauer @botanyhhu.bsky.social @hhu.de! We wish you all the best for the next step in your career!

Imputation integrates single-cell and spatial gene expression data to resolve transcriptional networks in barley shoot meristem development - Nature Plants Spatially resolved gene expression during barley development was done by integrating an scRNA-seq dataset from cells with unknown position with spatial transcriptomics. This dataset is publicly availa...

It's finally out!...
Using single-cell and spatial transcriptome data, and data imputation, we created BARVISTA, a website able to perform almost genome-wide information on gene expression profiles at single-cell resolution in barley spikes!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

‼️Please RT: The CEPLAS Graduate School call for 2026 is now open! Detailed info on our website: bit.ly/4q19JWk
@hhu.de @unicologne.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social @fz-juelich.de @leibnizipk.bsky.social @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social

Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model - Nature Methods By leveraging both deep learning and hidden Markov models, Helixer achieves broad taxonomic coverage for ab initio gene annotation of eukaryotic genomes from fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrat...

AI model Helixer predicts eukaryotic genes ab initio, directly from a plain text FASTA file.

No RNA-seq.
No protein homology.
No repeats, hints, or curated evidence.

Raw genome → accurate gene models.
Deep learning + HMM, published in @natmethods.nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do plants fight disease? 🌱 #NASmember Jane Parker studies NLR proteins that help plants sense attackers and launch powerful immune defenses. She shares her latest findings on how these proteins signal plants to resist disease in a new @pnas.org QnAs: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Überschrift: Highly cited researchers. Darunter sind 9 türkisfarbene Kreise platziert, sechs davon sind mit Porträts der Ausgezeichneten gefüllt.

🎖Sechs HHU-Forscher gehören zu den Highly Cited Researchers 2025.
Das Unternehmen Clarivate hat Forschende ausgezeichnet, deren Arbeiten weltweit besonders häufig zitiert werden. Gleich sechs Wissenschaftler der HHU zählen dazu. Sie gehören im Web of Science-Index zu den besten 1 % ihres Gebiets.1/4

Volles Haus beim 1. Kölner Wissenschaftsfestival! CEPLAS und @mpipz.bsky.social geben spannende Einblicke in die Pflanzenforschung!

In Vivo Online Monitoring of Intracellular Lipid Accumulation in Ustilago maydis Single cell oils produced in microorganisms constitute appealing alternatives to plant oils. Oleaginous fungi accumulate triacylglycerols in lipid droplets (LD). Their biosynthesis is typically indu...

MibiNet & @ceplas.bsky.social Data Management Team supported this new publication in making its raw data FAIR and accessible in the DataHUB🎉. This is how transparent research is done!
analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#FAIRdata #OpenScience #DataHUB #DataPLANT

Ensuring effective removal of transgenes before release of genome-edited crops - @research-science.bsky.social @ceplas.bsky.social @hhu.de go.nature.com/3WbbKlW

📣 New @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social preprint, another joint-venture of @wolki95.bsky.social & @antonkraege.bsky.social, co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social. Here’s a 🧵

TaCoCass folks in a cassava field

Cassava leaves with red petioles and some cassava flowers and fruits

A new crop in the lab. 🌱 Field day with TaCoCass team members — working to boost photosynthetic efficiency in cassava and secure a more sustainable food future. #Cassava #Photosynthesis #FoodSecurity

📚 Within the last three years, our postdocs have contributed to more than 50 publications!
This outstanding achievement highlights their essential role in advancing CEPLAS research and shaping the future of plant science. 👏🌱✨
#PostdocAppreciationWeek #ResearchExcellence #CEPLAS

@forscherrobert.bsky.social from @leibnizipk.bsky.social explained how his research team used genome editing to replicate wild mutations found in East Asian barley, successfully transferring virus resistance to European breeding lines. 🌾🛡

#GiveGenesAChance

Professor @apmweber.bsky.social, our project coordinator from @hhu.de talked about how to improve water use efficiency in maize through genome editing. 🌽

He pointed out that the EU should allow gene editing to make organic farming more sustainable: www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

🌍 Our current postdocs come from 15 countries - bringing diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and ideas. This diversity is a key strength of our community and enriches our research every day. We’re proud of this global team! 💡🌱
#PostdocAppreciationWeek #DiversityInScience #CEPLAS

🌟 It’s Postdoc Appreciation Week! 🌟
We are proud to currently have 33 postdocs at CEPLAS driving our projects forward with their expertise, creativity, and dedication! 🌱 #PostdocAppreciationWeek #PlantScience @hhu.de @unicologne.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social @leibnizipk.bsky.social @fz-juelich.de

I am thrilled &honoured, what a journey that was!
Only possible with the great support from family, all lab members, friends, current @unicologne.bsky.social / @ceplas.bsky.social & former colleagues & mentors.
With this project, we will do all that we can to help protect plants from diseases (1/2)

📢📢 We are hiring!! We are looking for a coordinator for science communication and a project manager! www.ceplas.eu/de/nachwuchs...

Job

Coordinator position: Science Communication #SciComm

In Excellence Cluster @ceplas.bsky.social
"SMART Plants for Tomorrow’s Needs"
@hhu.de ‬

www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/job-openi...

DFG sucht zum 01.01.2026 Wissenschaftsmanager (m/w/d) im Bereich Pflanzenwissenschaften.
dfg.concludis.de/prj/shw/5218...

How amino acids are transported in plants Plants produce all amino acids essential for human life. This commonly occurs in specialised cell organelles, so-called plastids. A research team headed by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (H...

How amino acids are transported in plants | EurekAlert! www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

@hhu.de @franzikuhnert.bsky.social @weberlab.bsky.social @ceplas.bsky.social

"Pflanzen sind die besten Chemiker der Welt", sagt John D'Auria vom @leibnizipk.bsky.social im Podcast querFELDein des @zalf.bsky.social. Mit Manuela Nagel erklärt er dort nicht nur das Projekt "Obi von Knobi", sondern auch, wie es zun dem Namen kam. Reinhören lohnt!!!

➡️https://tinyurl.com/yup3n7d

In silico encounters: Harnessing metabolic modelling to understand plant-microbe interactions Abstract. Understanding plant-microbe interactions is vital for developing sustainable agricultural practices and mitigating the consequences of climate ch

In silico encounters: Harnessing metabolic modelling to understand plant-microbe interactions

#FEMS Microbiol Rev by Martina Feierabend and Nadine Töpfer @ceplas.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/femsre/advan...

✈️ Summer travel plans? Great! But maybe leave that cute cactus or mystery seed behind 🌵🛑 Bringing plants into the EU without a phytosanitary certificate can cause big plant health problems.
Read more from @plants4thefuture.bsky.social:

www.plantetp.eu/wp-content/u...

#PlantHealth #TravelTips

Is plant single cell/nuc. & spatial transcriptomics your passion? Do you want to understand plant adaptation using cutting edge molecular & bioinformatics tools? Then come and join us to work together with @ceplas.bsky.social & @wggc-de.bsky.social. #plantjobs
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Speech bubble with text: we are hiring

Please RT: We are hiring 📣! We are looking for a coordinator of our CEPLAS Graduate School!
If you are interested in working in an international and dynamic academic environment with highly motivated and talented ECRs, check out the details here: karriere.hhu.de/index.php?ac...