Seminar Talks

It is a great pleasure to announce the upcoming PlantMicrobe seminar talk to be given by
Manuel Lera Ramirez, University College London

on Tuesday, February 24th 2026 at 13:00 via Zoom.

"OpenCloning: a credible open-source alternative to SnapGene and Benchling that integrates with ELNs"

OpenCloning is an open-source web application to plan and document cloning and genome engineering. It enables researchers to design cloning strategies via an intuitive web interface (see example) or programmatically (see example), and it provides a standardized data model to represent cloning workflows.

In this online seminar, you will see how OpenCloning can help you:

• Import plasmid sequences from repositories such as Addgene and genome sequences from NCBI
• Plan cloning and design primers (e.g., Gibson, Golden Gate, Gateway)
• Plan CRISPR- and recombination-based engineering workflows (not supported by many commercial tools)
• Automate repetitive cloning and primer design using templates, web forms, or scripts
• Save and share complete cloning strategies in files or store them in eLabFTW

Relevant links

Try it: https://opencloning.org/ [opencloning.org]

Demo video (slightly outdated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0hedzvpW88&t=189s [youtube.com]

eLabFTW integration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LEFR1vQwZU [youtube.com]

eLabFTW integration documentation: https://doc.elabftw.net/opencloning.html [doc.elabftw.net]

Bio:

During his PhD in EMBL Heidelberg and Institute Curie in Paris, Manu used fission yeast genetics to study the mitotic spindle, combining experimental and computational approaches. He grew increasingly interested in FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data in the context of model organism genetics, and decided to join PomBase (in UCL, London), the model organism database for fission yeast, where I developed quality control pipelines and worked as a biocurator. Now he is working on OpenCloning, an Open Source web application to plan and document cloning and genetic engineering. He is also an active contributor and maintainer of pydna, a python library for cloning.

The Zoom is sent to members via E-Mail.

It is a great pleasure to announce the upcoming PlantMicrobe seminar talk to be given by

Thorsten Hamann, Norwegian University of Natural Sciences and Technology

on Tuesday, March 10th 2026 at 13:00 in person at Univeristy Ulm (Room tba) and also via Zoom.

"Plant cell wall mechanics at the intersection of development and drought resistence"

Plant cell walls surround all plant cells and form together with the plasma membrane the interface between plants and their environment. A large amount of research has resulted in profound knowledge regarding perception of chemical stimuli and adaptative changes in plant metabolism, underlaying plant adaptation to a changing environment. In contrast knowledge regarding in vivo changes of physical characteristics of plant cells and tissues during development and adaptation to a changing environment is still limited. An important reason for that is the small number of technologies enabling such studies. We have built a Brillouin microscope, which allows studies of mechanical characteristics in vivo in a label free manner with sub-cellular resolution and in sub-epidermal cell layers. We are using it to study how viscosity and stiffness change in the root of Arabidopsis thaliana during development and in response to hyperosmotic stress. I will provide both an overview of our current knowledge and some insights into our use of the technology in an ERC Synergy project aiming to understand water perception in plants.

The Zoom link will be sent to members via E-Mail.

Contributors:
Luis Alonso-Baez^A, Michaela Ticha^A, Francesco Saffioti^A, Sara Morghen^A, Astrid Bjørkøy^B, Bjørn Torger-Stokke^B and Thorsten Hamann^A
A Institute for Biology, Norwegian University of Natural Sciences and Technology, Høgskoleringen 5, Trondheim, 7491
^B Institute for Physics, Norwegian University of Natural Sciences and Technology, Høgskoleringen 5, Trondheim, 7491

It is a great pleasure to announce the upcoming PlantMicrobe seminar talk to be given by

the LRZ I01 team

on Tuesday, April 28th 2026 at 13:00 in person at LRZ (Room tba) and also via Zoom.

"New Tools and Workflows from I01 "

Abstract tba

The Zoom link will be sent to members via E-Mail.

It is a great pleasure to announce the upcoming PlantMicrobe seminar talk to be given by

Amey Redkar, NCBS, Bangalore, India

on Tuesday, May 5th 2026 at 13:00 in person at MPI (Room tba) and also via Zoom.

"Root-Fusarium interactions"

Abstract tba

The Zoom link will be sent to members via E-Mail.

It is a great pleasure to announce the upcoming PlantMicrobe seminar talk to be given by

Heidi Seibold, Digital Research Academy

on Tuesday, May 19th 2026 at 13:00 in person at LMU Martinsried (Room B01.027) and also via Zoom.

"Research Software Engineering"

Abstract tba

The Zoom link will be sent to members via E-Mail.