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5th NIBB-MPIPZ-TLL Symposium
Horizons in Plant Biology
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne
November 24-26, 2014
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Maarten Koornneef was elected as a member of Leopoldina

In recognition of his scientific achievements Maarten Koornneef was elected as a member of Leopoldina in May 2014.

The German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina is the world’s oldest academy involved in natural sciences. It was founded in 1652 in the Free Imperial City of Schweinfurt. Since 1878, it has been seated in Halle on the Saale river. The Leopoldina was appointed Germany's National Academy of Sciences in July 2008.

Scientists are elected members who represent subject areas corresponding to the Leopoldina’s section structure and who have distinguished themselves by demonstrating academic excellence.

Renier van der Hoorn receives ERC (European Research Council) Consolidator Grant

Dr. Renier van der Hoorn has been awarded with a Consolidator grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his proposal to unravel the proteolytic machinery of the wild tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana. Control over this proteolytic machinery will increase the levels and quality of recombinant protein production in this plant species upon transient expression by agroinfiltration (infiltration of Agrobacterium tumefaciens). Successful protease depletion strategies will be used to identify natural substrates of these proteases to study how these enzymes shape and regulate the plant proteome. The EU will sponsor this project entitled ‘GreenProteases’ with 2.038.196 euro for a period of 5 years.

ERC Advanced Grant award to George Coupland

George Coupland, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, was this month awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The grant is to isolate from perennial plants genes that control patterns of senescence or duration of flowering and to test their usefulness in crop plants. Unlike most model plant species, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, perennials survive flowering and live for many years. Dr Coupland’s research group has established Arabis alpina as a model perennial and made hybrids between A. alpina and its annual sister species Arabis montbretiana. Segregating populations made from these hybrids will be used to isolate genes conferring perennial traits associated with longevity and these will be used to identify similar variation in perennial Brassica crops. The grant award was announced by the ERC on 26th September 2013 and is for 2.4 million Euros over 5 years.   

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