Our current carbon economy relies on fossil fuels, from which we isolate small organic molecules to produce medicines, plastics, cosmetic, or other chemicals that we use everyday. However, sustainability requires a more biomass-based carbon economy, where we engineer plants to produce precursor molecules, which can then be assembled to desired chemicals that we use daily. Plants have evolved an amazing diversity of metabolites, but these metabolites are not produced in every cell of the plant. Therefore, it is essential to understand how plants can express different metabolic pathways across different organs, tissues, and even cell types. We are interested in the following questions: How are metabolic pathways (especially specialized metabolism) controlled by cell fate? How can we reprogram plant cell fates for biomanufacturing? How can we toggle between differentiated cell states for metabolic engineering and totipotent cell state for genetic engineering?

Until now, a crucial step in the biosynthesis of iridoids, a class of plant defense substances that are also medically relevant, had remained undiscovered. A team from the Max Planck Institute for Che...

Iridoids are terpenoid metabolites found in thousands of plants. Using single-cell transcriptomics, the authors discovered an unexpected enzyme that has been neofunctionalized to catalyse the cyclization required to form the iridoid scaffold.

PhD Project - The biosynthesis and immunity function of lettuce sesquiterpene lactones at Gatsby Charitable Foundation, listed on FindAPhD.com

The medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus is a source of leading anticancer drugs. The monoterpene indole alkaloid (MIA) biosynthetic pathway in C. roseus has now been analyzed using a complementary, multi-omics, single-cell approach. This identified clusters of genes involved in MIA biosynthesis and cell-type-specific partitioning in the MIA biosynthetic pathway.

Thiamine triphosphate, derived from the coenzyme thiamine diphosphate and inorganic phosphate, slows the activation of chloroplast ATP synthase.

We are currently recruiting for two post-doc positions in the Lichman lab that require similar skills and experience. We aim to do a joint recruitment process with a single interview. If you apply...