Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, Nataliia has completed her Bachelor and Master studies at Queen Mary University and Imperial University London, respectively, with a focus on plant molecular and synthetic biology. For her PhD, she has moved to the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria to the group of Professor Luschnig to decipher the mechanisms controlling protein polarity in the root. Driven by the interest of understanding mechanisms guiding polarity, currently Nataliia is focused on studying the process of oriented cell divisions in Professor De Rybel's group.

Eline graduated from the Faculty of Sciences at Ghent University in 2021 with a Master in Biology, after which she continued her studies with a one-year Advanced Master in Plant Biotechnology. She performed her second Master thesis in the Vascular Development lab, where she subsequently joined to start a PhD in November 2022. Her project is embedded within the “PIPELINES” ERC Consolidator Grant (EU-funding) which was acquired by Bert De Rybel, and aims to discover novel transcriptional regulators in the process of vascular development through the use of single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. By studying the scRNA-seq data of evolutionary diverged model species that contain a vascular system, she aims to find regulators in xylem and phloem which are evolutionary conserved.

Claudia von der Mark

With a strong background in root physiology and vascular development, Claudia joined the group of prof. Bert De Rybel in September 2022 to explore the transcriptional landscape and central regulators of xylem formation. During her undergraduate and graduate studies, which she conducted at the Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf (Germany), she worked on deciphering the plant’s iron deficiency response under the lead of Prof. Petra Bauer. In March 2018 she moved to Switzerland to conduct her doctoral research at the ETH Zurich. Together with her supervisor Prof. Antia Rodriguez-Villalon and colleagues she investigated the role of signaling phospholipids during vascular development. Claudia was a scholarship holder of the Walter Benjamin stipend (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) and is currently supported by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) in form of a junior postdoctoral fellowship.

Staff scientist

Thomas Eekhout graduated as a Master in Biochemistry and biotechnology at Ghent University in 2013 before starting his PhD on plant cell cycle regulation in the group of prof. Lieven De Veylder. After obtaining his PhD in 2018 he did a short postdoc in the same group, after which he joined the plant single cell platform of prof. Bert De Rybel in the summer of 2020. Since then, he has loaded and analyzed over two hundred samples from over 20 species for both internal and external groups on different single cell technology platforms.

Maite Saura Sanchez

Maite earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology and her Master’s Degree in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). Following this, she relocated to Argentina to start her PhD at IFEVA (Buenos Aires), where she studied the role of BBX proteins in the shade avoidance responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. During this period, she also completed a Master’s degree in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). In 2021, she joined Bert De Rybel's group to participate in a collaborative project with Tom Beeckman (PSB-VIB) and Tina Kyndt (UGent). Her current project aims to study the conserved mechanisms between dicots and monocots during de novo organogenesis processes in roots at the single-cell level.

In 2008, Jolien obtained her bachelor's degree in Biomedical Laboratory Technology at Hogent. Shortly after, she became a member of Prof. Gerrit Beemster's research group at PSB, focusing on organ growth regulation. When Gerrit Beemster moved on from PSB, the group became part of the Yield lab led by Prof. Dr. Dirk Inzé and Dr. Hilde Nelissen. In 2021, Jolien seized the opportunity to join Prof. Bert De Rybel's plant single cell platform. Here, the team is dedicated to expanding their knowledge and expertise in the exciting but challenging field of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics in plants.

After finishing his bachelor degree in Farmaceutical and Biological Techniques at the Kaho Sint-Lieven hogeschool in Ghent, Jonah started his working career in the Molecular Pharming lab of professor Ann Depicker in 2006. Upon her retirement, he joined the Vascular Development group of professor Bert De Rybel in 2017 where he has been working ever since.