Contact details: name@slu.se
Frauke Augstein – Postdoc – Frauke is from Germany and obtained her Bsc and Msc degrees from RWTH Aachen University including an exchange year at the NTNU Trondheim, Norway. She moved to Sweden where she did her PhD at Uppsala University studying plant root xylem developmental plasticity in response to water deficiency and salt in Annelie Carlsbecker’s lab. She is now investigating the genetic basis of graft incompatibility in Solanaceae species, as tomato and pepper, and the molecular regulation of grafting induced dwarfing using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Email: frauke.augstein
Ming Feng – Postdoc – Ming is from China and obtained his Ph.D. from China Agriculture University studying postharvest physiology and senescence mechanisms in roses. He is investigating how chemicals affect graft formation and working with conifer grafting. Email: ming.feng
Ellen Fasth – MSc student – Ellen is from Sweden and received her BSc in biology from Umeå University and will obtain a MSc in Genetic and molecular plant biology from Uppsala University in the spring of 2023. Currently, she is investigating pluripotency-inducing substances affecting plant regeneration and callus formation in Arabidopsis, as well as their potential during tomato grafting. Apart from science, she enjoys reading, writing and spending time at the summer cottage. Email: ellen.fasth
Abdul Kareem – Postdoc- Kareem is from India and obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram. During his PhD, he investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying plant regeneration. On completion of his PhD, he moved to Australia as a Postdoc in the laboratory of Marcus Heisler at the University of Sydney to study the coordination of cell polarity during organ formation. He is currently investigating how plants connect their vasculature during plant grafting and why some plants fail to graft (graft incompatibility). He will specifically look at the graft junction formation in different plant species. Email: abdul.kareem.vk
Martina Leso – PhD student – Martina is from Italy. She received her BSc in Biotechnology from Trento University, and moved to Sweden for her Master studies. She is currently doing her Master thesis project in the lab, focusing on the influences of hormonal signalling on plant parasitism. Email: martina.leso
Charles Melnyk – Associate Professor – Charles is from Canada and obtained his BSc Hons degree in Biochemistry at his local university in Ottawa. He moved to the UK where he did his PhD at the John Innes Centre and University of Cambridge with David Baulcombe studying mobile small RNAs. He stayed on in Cambridge as a Research Fellow at Clare College and the Sainsbury Laboratory with Elliot Meyerowitz and Ottoline Leyser where he initiated his research on understanding the developmental basis for how plants graft and how parasitic plants infect. Having worked at a plant nursery for four summers, Charles is a keen botanist but also enjoys road cycling, cross country skiing, jogging and traveling. Email: charles.melnyk
Hing Pan Ng (Ben) – MSc student – Ben is from from Hong Kong. He is pursuing a masters degree in biochemistry at Uppsala University. He is currently doing his Master thesis project in the lab, focusing on pectin methylesterases in plant parasitism. Email: hing.pan.ng
Gabriel Walckiers – MSc student – Gabriel’s home country is Belgium, in which he obtained an undergraduate and master’s degree in Bio-engineering at the UCLouvain University. In his first masters, he investigated the formation of glandular trichomes in Nicotiana tabacum. This introduced him to the field of plant genetics, which he aims to understand in a secondary masters at Uppsala University. He is currently doing his master thesis in Charles Melnyk’s lab; investigating the fate of tissue regeneration in Arabidopsis thaliana. Email: gabriel.walckiers
Ai Zhang – Postdoc – Ai is from China and obtained her PhD from the Northeast Normal University studying the global impacts of aneuploidy (genomic stability) on gene expression in polyploid (wheat). Currently, she is characterising the early activators of graft formation in Arabidopsis. Email: ai.zhang
Charles Melnyk's Lab 