MICROP - Key Persons
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- Utrecht University, Environmental Biology
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- Further Information / ResearchGate / Google Scholar / ORCID / Personal Website
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- Plant Microbiome Interactions, Utrecht University
Claudio Screpanti is an agronomist working at Syngenta R&D in Switzerland. He has several years of experience in agricultural research. He obtained his PhD in agronomy from the University of Bologna, Italy in 2003. He carried out additional studies in molecular biology and genetic engineering at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Later Claudio joined Syngenta R&D, covering different scientific roles always in relation to soil. In 2018 he became a Syngenta Fellow, a company award recognizing outstanding scientific achievements. In 2024, he was promoted to Senior Syngenta Fellow, for his work in relation to the soil health and sustainable agriculture. In his current role, Claudio leads the Soil Health Centre in Stein and acts as the Syngenta soil expert looking at the effects of a wide range of technologies (i.e. small molecules, biostimulants, etc.) in the soil-crop systems. The aim is to support the discovery and development of new and more sustainable crop protection solutions. Further information LinkedIn ResearchGate
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- Principal Scientist at ICRISAT
Dr. Sudini, an Indian national, earned his B. Sc. (Agricultural Sciences) and M.Sc. (Agriculture) from Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (presently Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University), Andhra Pradesh, India followed by a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Auburn University, Alabama, USA. Dr. Hari Kishan Sudini joined in International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in December 2009 and since then he has been working for ICRISAT in various capacities. Currently, I am working as a Principal Scientist- Groundnut Pathology in the Accelerated Crop Improvement Research Program and the Head of Science Quality & Strategy at ICRISAT, India. My research areas/interests include identifying and deploying cost-effective and sustainable management options for groundnut diseases (leaf spots, rust, stem and collar rot, bud necrosis disease etc.) to improve the crop's productivity and profitability. Most importantly, my lab works on addressing aflatoxin contamination in groundnut along the value chain including aflatoxin diagnostics. Of late my team focusing on soil amendments such as biochar and its influence on soilborne diseases suppression.
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- Further Information / ResearchGate / ORCID / Google Scholar
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- Further Information / Google Scholar / University Website
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- University of Amsterdam, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences
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- Further Information / ORCID
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- Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Julia Vorholt is Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and co-director of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Microbiomes. Her laboratory focuses on understanding and engineering of plant microbiomes, one-carbon metabolism, and endosymbioses. Functional analyses are performed across scales, from molecules and proteins to cells, microbiomes, and host-microbe interactions..
Karen Kloth and her team will contribute expertise in the area of insect-plant-microbiome interactions, focussing on the role of the plant microbiome in defense responses against herbivorous insects and in modulating the interaction with beneficial insects. In MiCRop Karen goes into the footsteps of Marcel Dicke, who is one of the 6 PIs that together established MiCRop. The WUR-Entomology team has extensive experience with assessing insect-plant interactions at molecular, behaviour and ecological level, especially with brassicaceous plants and Capsicum species. Within the MiCRop programme Karen's team investigates microbiome assembly during herbivory and functional characterization of beneficial effects on plant resilience in collaboration with the teams of Christa Testerink at WU, Corne Pieterse at UU, Harro Bouwmeester at UvA, Jos Raaijmakers at NIOO, and Toby Kiers at VU. The translation of MiCRop laboratory results into more stress-resilient crops that make better use of their microbiome will be carried out in close interaction with industrial partners.
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- Further Information / ORCID / Google Scholar / University Website
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- Vice - President Crop Data Science, Keygene N.V
Marcel van Verk heads the Crop Data Science department, the company's central hub for advanced data analytics. His team specializes in designing and applying innovative methods using systems biology and artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle data challenges in genomics, trait research, digital phenotyping, and breeding. By leveraging interdisciplinary collaboration, Marcel and his teams are pushing the boundaries of agricultural science and technology, advancing crop science through cutting-edge data analytics.
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- Further Information / LinkedIn / ORCID / BlueSky
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- Plant - Hormone Biology Group, Swammerdam Institute of Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam
Rumyana Karlova and her team will provide expertise on abiotic stress signalling, including plasticity of plant root architecture in salt, drought, and low nutrient availability, as well as interactions between environmental signalling pathways, using physiological, cellular, biochemical, and genetic approaches. For functional elucidation of the abiotic stress resilience mechanisms of plants that are tapped into by the microbiome, she will collaborate with Karen Klot at WU, Harro Bouwmeester at UvA and Corné Pieterse at UU. Recruitment of microbes under different conditions will be addressed in collaboration with Paolina Garbeva and Jos Raaijmakers at NIOO. The WUR-Plant Physiology team will identify plant traits associated with the recruitment of beneficial microbiomes and provide new strategies for plant-microbiome breeding programs, which is an important benefit to the application of results for generating more stress-resilient crops, within MiCRop, and in collaboration with industrial partners.
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- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Ecological Science
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- Member of the MiCRop Management Team
- Programme Manager
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- Chairman
- Member of the MiCRop Management Team
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- Wageningen University and Research
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- Policy Coordinator Research & Breeding Methods
Plantum is the business association for plant breeders and young-plant growers. As a policy specialist Research at Plantum, I am always looking for new research opportunities and exciting research projects. The microbiome has great potential in relation to plant breeding and I'm looking forward to the outcomes of MiCrop!
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- Professor Data Analysis in the Life Sciences
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- Further Information / Homepage / Twitter / Google Scholar
- Member of the MiCRop Data Team
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- Chairman of the Laboratory of Entomology
- Further Information / Google Scholar / University Website
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- Further Information / ORCID / Google Scholar / University Website
Jos Raaijmakers heads the Microbial Ecology Department of the NIOO-KNAW encompassing six research groups with a total of approximately 60 staff. He is also Professor Microbial Ecology at the Institute of Biology at Leiden University. His research programme "Learning from Nature" focuses on the largely unknown biodiversity and functions of the microbial world. They study the role of microbial communities and functions in key ecosystem processes in order to solve major problems associated with human impact on the environment: i) the dynamics and functioning of microbiomes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; ii) chemical ecology of soil and plant microbiomes; iii) biogeochemical cycling, greenhouse gas emissions & climate change; and iv) evolution of microbial communities (bacteria, viruses). In close collaboration with national and international research institutes and industry, their fundamental science is translated into soil management strategies to mitigate climate change and into microbial products (microbes, metabolites) to combat anti-microbial resistance of human, animal and plant pathogens and to control emerging pests and diseases in aqua- and agriculture.
Marcel Dicke and his team contributed expertise in the area of evolutionary ecology of microbe-plant-insect interactions, focussing on evolutionary phylogenomics of microbiome recruitment in collaboration with Toby Kiers, on mechanisms underlying microbiome recruitment by plants in collaboration with Corné Pieterse, Harro Bouwmeester and Christa Testerink and the consequences for plant resilience to biotic stresses in collaboration with Jos Raaijmakers. The WUR-Entomology team has extensive experience with assessing plant resilience under field conditions in the presence of biotic and abiotic stresses, especially with brassicaceous plants and with the phylogenetic approach to plant immunity. The translation of MiCRop laboratory results into more stress-resilient crops that make better use of their microbiome will be carried out in close interaction with industrial partners.
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- Director of the Department of Plant - Microbe Interactions at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
Paul Schulze-Lefert is director of the Department of Plant-Microbe Interactions at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany. Previously, he held senior positions at the University of Aachen, Germany, and at the Sainsbury Laboratory of the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. His research focuses on the plant innate immune system and the plant microbiota. In recent years, his laboratory has contributed to the development of plant microbiota science as a new field of research. His main goal is to define the molecular principles underlying the establishment of plant-associated microbial communities and their beneficial services to the host using reductionist approaches.
Toby Kiers' group will address how host-microbe relationships have evolved over deep time using new quantitative phylogenetic techniques. She will work in close collaboration with Jos Raaijmakers at NIOO on all evolutionary aspects of the proposal, and with Christa Testerink at WUR on correlating microbiome assembly with environmental stressors. Her group has expertise in analysing complex evolutionary relationships between host and microbes, and the factors driving stability of particular relationships. She will work with Jos Raaijmakers to study different aspects of domestication on microbiome communities. Working with the Bouwmeester group at UvA, Kiers will also use her knowledge on the mycorrhizal symbiosis to develop experimental methods to test for strain-specific mycorrhizal recruitment strategies across diverse plants. Because of her group's experience in developing sustainable agricultural systems, she will also work on outreach and breeding techniques with farmers associated with WU.
Toby Kiers' Symbiosis group investigates how cooperation between species evolves and persists in host-microbe systems. She develops novel ways to study symbiosis evolution. The field of symbiosis is driving a paradigm shift in biology as researchers begin to understand how fundamental microbes are to organismal innovation and evolution. Toby Kiers' group has participated in two major ways: 1) development of novel theories and tools to predict, track and manipulate resource exchange in symbioses and 2) combining theory and empirical techniques to study historic shifts and predict future symbiotic responses to climate change. Kiers explores how hosts discriminate among competing microbes. She develops tools to predict when normally cooperative partners are favored to cheat, and defect from cooperative behavior. Her approach is unique in that she looks at partnerships in the past (phyolgenetic reconstructions), and partnerships in the future (experimental evolution) to understand the conditions that favour particular alliances.
Job Titles:
- Member of the MiCRop Management Team
- Outreach & Communication Officer