2026
March 31
Xiaofeng Wang, Virginia Tech
"Protein, lipid, and membrane interactions in positive-strand RNA virus genome replication"
March 10
Thorsten Hamann, Norwegian University of Natural Sciences and Technology
"Plant cell wall mechanics at the intersection of development and drought resistence"
February 24
Manuel Lera Ramirez, University College London
"OpenCloning: a credible open-source alternative to SnapGene and Benchling that integrates with ELNs"
2025
Nov 25
Adrian Wallner, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
“Exploring endofungal bacteria: Insights from the grapvine pathogen Fomitiporia mediterranea“
Nov 11
James Brown, John Innes Centre, UK
"Durable Disease Resistance in Cereals"
Oct 7
Marc Knight, Durham University
“Calcium signalling in response to stress in plants"
Sept 30
Sebastian Pfeilmeier, University of Amsterdam
"Plant infections by Xanthomonas pathogens: a lens into tissue-specific virulence and immunity"
Sept 23
Juan Carlos De la Concepción, Gregor Mendel Institute of Plant Biology, Vienna BioCenter
“Following the Effector: A Journey Through Virulence, Immunity, and Evolution”
July 22
Alexander Förderer, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Golm
"Structure-informed engineering of plant-microbe interactions"
July 8
Pingtao Ding, Leiden University, Netherlands
"Transcriptional execution of intracellular plant innate immunity"
June 10
Isabel Saur, University of Cologne
"Barley-powdery mildew interaction"
May 27
Santiago F. Elena, University of Valencia
“Age matters: host developmental stage modulates immune responses and viral evolution"
May 20
David Mackey, Ohio State University
"Niche establishment is foundational to bacterial infection of plants"
April 15
Marco Incarbone, MPI Molecular Plant Physiology
"AGO5 restricts virus vertical transmission in plant gametes"
April 8
Padraic Flood, Wageningen University and Research NL
"Lathyrus tuberosus: The Protein-Rich Tuber Crop of the Future"
January 14
Michael Krings, Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology
"The small world in the Rhynie chert – how microorganisms, plants, and animals lived together 400 million years ago"
2024
November 5
Iris Eisermann, The Sainsbury Laboratory
"SEPBLAST: Identifying septin interactors that drive plant infection by Magnaporthe oryzae"
October 29
Hernán Burbano, University College London
"Pathogen wars through time: studying plant pathogens with modern and historical DNA"
October 15
Uta Paszkowski, University of Cambridge
"The Art and Design of Harmony in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbioses"
July 23
Dmitry Lapin, Utrecht University
"Control of the immune receptor gene expression and immunity-conditioned growth"
July 17, Wednesday at 11.:15 am
Eva H. Stukenbrock, University of Kiel
"Control of the immune receptor gene expression and immunity-conditioned growth"
July 16
Eva H. Stukenbrock, University of Kiel
"The role of microbial interactions in fungal pathogenicity"
June 18
Sarah O'Connor, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
"Harnessing plant natural products"
June 11
Brande B. H. Wulff, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
"Wheat rust resistance genes: R we there yet?"
June 4
Keith Duncan, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis
"Using lab-based X-ray tomography for multiscale and correlative 3D imaging in plant biology"
May 28
Lois Banta, Williams College
"Modulation of host defenses by the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) of Agrobacterium tumefaciens"
May 21
Christine Wolter, UB TUM & TUM RD Hub and Martin Spenger, UB LMU
"Research Data Management at the Munich Universities, with discussionon connection to TRR356"
May 14
Renier van der Hoorn, University of Oxford
"Chemical proteomics, CryoEM and AI reveal novel apoplast manipulation mechanisms by Pseudomonas syringae"
May 7
Daniel Croll, University of Neuchâtel
"Entanglement of transposable elements and virulence in rapid crop pathogen adaptation"
February 20
Cyril Zipfel, University of Zurich and The Sainsbury Laboratory
"Activation and regulation of plant immunity by secreted signaling peptides"
2023
December 12
Kate Parys, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
"Genetic and functional diversity of Lotus MLD-LRR-RKs in root endosymbiosis"
December 5
Jessica Erickson, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle (Saale)
"Understanding Xanthomonas virulence through the study of secreted proteins"
November 14
Marion Clavel, Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology
"Relieving the burden of replication: how selective autophagy protects host cells against virus induced organelle remodeling"
October 31
Saskia Hogenhout, John Innes Centre, Advanced Plant Health
"Unlocking the unique activities of phytoplasma effectors"
October 24
Ralph Hückelhoven, Technical University of Munich
"Co-option of host ROP GTPase and phospholipid signaling by the barley powdery mildew fungus”
October 17
Korbinian Schneeberger, Ludwig-Maximilans-Universität Munich
"On pathogen-induced mutation rates in A. thaliana - a status report"
October 12
Michael Udvardi, Centre for Crop Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
“Genetics and genomics of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes: past, present and future”
September 19
Klaus Schläppi, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel
“Exudate-microbiome interactions on Maize roots”
September 12
Joshua Taillon, National Institute of Standards and Technology
"Lessons Learned Evaluating and Deploying Electronic Laboratory Notebooks at NIST"
September 8
Jeremy Murray, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Science, Shanghai
"Specific Small Molecule Signaling : Flavonoids as host-to-microbe signals"
September 7
Jeremy Murray, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Science, Shanghai
"The Ins and Outs of Nitrate Transport in Legumes"
July 18
Stephane Compant, Austrian Institute of Technology
"Fungal-bacterial interactions and impact on plant growth and health"
July 11
Gunther Doehlemann, University of Cologne, Institute of Plant Sciences
"The tricked plant - how the fungal pathogen Ustilago maydis manipulates the gene expression and metabolism of its host"
July 4
Defeng Shen, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
"The importance of barriers in a functional relationship"
June 27
Andreas Schaller, University of Hohenheim
"Unexpected addition to the systemin family: three new wound signaling peptides in tomato"
June 20
Martin Stegmann, Technical University of Munich
"Regulation of disease susceptibility and resistance by phytocytokines"
June 13
Eric Kemen, Universität Tübingen
“What factors shape the host microbiota? An infinite puzzle of microbe-microbe-host-environment interactions”
June 6
Detlef Weigel, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen
“Introduction to work on plant immunity in the Weigel lab”
May 30
Caroline Gutjahr, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Root Biology and Symbiosis
“Regulation AM development”
May 23
Farhah Assaad, Technical University of Munich, School of Life Sciences
“Plant resilience to future climate”
May 9
Danelle Seymour, University of California, Riverside
“Integrating scales to traverse the genotype-phenotype divide in citrus”
April 25
Tonni Andersen, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
“Timing of root barriers is essential for soil-to-shoot integration of rhizosphere status”
January 17
Thorsten Langner, The Sainsbury Laboratory
“From basic research to application: Understanding pathogen evolution to guide plant immune receptor engineering”