Dr Lukas Müller

I’m interested in the circadian clock and its effect on physiological and agricultural performance in plants. In the OpenPlant project I am investigating the circadian clock in Marchantia polymorpha and analyze the regulation of clock behavior and outputs in this relative of early land plants. In particular, I am focusing on the primary metabolism as an excellent proxy for systemic processes and vegetative growth.

I apply fluorescent imaging tools with computational time-lapse analysis to obtain cell-specific read-outs for the whole plant in real-time. This data is intended to set the stage for both physiological engineering and systems biology approaches.

Part of my project is to engineer fluorescent proteins that are standardised and improved reporters for dynamic changes in gene expression.

Dr Eftychis Frangedakis

Eftychis did his PhD at Oxford University focusing on the evolution of developmental mechanisms in land plants. During his doctoral research he developed a strong interest and fascination for bryophytes. He then moved to the University of Tokyo to work with the least studied group of bryophytes, hornworts. After a short detour in Hong Kong he is now back to the UK working on the development of new synthetic biology tools in Marchantia.