Who we are? Have a look at current lab members of the SR team!
Dr. Silke Robatzek - Group Leader
Researcher ID: B-6844-2013
Silke studied Biology in Göttingen where she initially worked on plant physiology with a focus on gibberellin biosynthesis. For her PhD she joined the group of Imre Somssich at the Max-Planck-Institut für Pflanzenzüchtungsforschung (MPIPZ) and addressed the role of WRKY transcription factors during plant defense and senescence. She then moved to Basel, Switzerland, and did her postdoctoral research at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (Novartis) on flagellin sensing and FLS2. She continued her research on FLS2 at the Botanical Institute, University Basel, where she discovered flagellin-mediated endocytosis of FLS2. Silke re-joined the MPIPZ 2005, where she set up her own research group focussing on microbe-induced signaling and endocytosis in Arabidopsis. In 2009 she took a group leader position at the Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) in Norwich, UK, and is studying the dynamics of membrane trafficking in plant immunity. Silke obtained 2010 her “venia docendi” in plant cell biology at the University Basel. Her current research is supported by the SPP1212 "Plant-Micro" (http://www.plant-micro.de/), and the ERA-PG "PROSIG" (http://www.erapg.org) initiatives. "If we are to understand plant-microbe interactions, we need to investigate the associated subcellular adaptations at the molecular level."
Martina Beck -Postdoctoral Fellow
martina.beck@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Martina studied Biology in at the University Bonn, Germany and did her PhD at the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany in Bonn. She joined the Robatzek lab in February 2010. To better understand the role of endosomal/ membrane trafficking in plant immunity, she combines genetics and cell biology and applies high throughput confocal image analysis. Martina successfully obtained a fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Recently, Martina published new insights into the spatio-temproral trafficking of FLS2 in The Plant Cell (2012).
Gildas Bourdais - Postdoctoral Fellow
gildas.bourdais@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Gildas studied Plant Biology in France and did his PhD at the Seed Biology Laboratory at INRA of Versailles and AgroParisTech in Paris. He joined the Robatzek lab in June 2009 within the “PROSIG” consortium and is now supported by “STORM” project. His main topic is to investigate stomata closure in plant immunity.
Malick Mbengue - Postdoctoral Fellow
malick.mbengue@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Malick studied Plant Biology in France and did his PhD in the group of J. Cullimore and C. Gough at the “Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes Micro-organisme” in Toulouse. He joined the Robatzek group in October 2010. His main topic is to investigate the role of FLS2 interacting proteins in PAMP-triggered immunity.
Ji Zhou - Postdoctoral Fellow
ji.zhou@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Ji completed his BEng in computer controlling at Shanghai University of Engineering Sciences (SUES) in 1999 and worked in Shanghai as a bilingual IT professional for over three years. In 2005, he received an MSc in Information Systems at University of East Anglia (UEA) UK and worked as a main systems analyst in Norwich Union until 2009. Ji did his PhD in Computer Science at UEA and joined the Robatzek lab in late spring 2011. Presently, he focuses on 2D/3D image analysis and other related software development. Ji recently published a software solution to measure callose deposition in Plant Methods (2012).
Alexandre Evrard - Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Alexandre.Evrard@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Alex obtained his PhD at the Agro Montpellier in France. From 2004 to 2008 he joined the Group of Thomas Eulgem at UC-Riverside (USA) to study transcriptional reprogramming of the Arabidopsis transcriptome in response to Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis. From 2008 to 2012 he worked in Heribert Hirt’s lab at the URGV unit in Evry (France) leading three main projects, the phosphoregulation of a Heat shock transcription factor, the Arabidopsis immunity in response to Salmonella thyphimurium infection, and the effect of Agrobacterium virulence factors on PAMP-triggered immunity. Alex joined the Robatzek lab to work on a chemical screen while investigating cellular immune responses.
Deirdre MacLachlan - Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Deirdre.McLachlan@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Deirdre conducted her PhD research, at the University of Essex and the Marine Biology Association Plymouth, on diatom motility and intracellular calcium dynamics in response to light. She then worked on stomatal signalling and metabolism in the Hetherington Group at Bristol University before joining the Robatzek lab in February 2013 to investigate stomatal responses under biotic stress. Deirdre is supported by the “STORM” project.
Sara Ben Khaled - PhD Student
sara.khaled@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Sara obtained an engineer diploma from the National Institute of Agronomics in Tunis in 2010. She did her master thesis in the group of D. Roby and Y. Marco at the INRA “Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes Micro-organisme” in Toulouse in June 2011. Sara joined the Robatzek lab in late 2011 where she is interested in the regulatory mechanisms of FLS2 endosomal sorting.
Jenna Loiseau - Predoc Student
Jenna.Loiseau@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Jenna did her master thesis in the group of F. Simon-Plas at the INRA “Laboratoire des microdomaines menbranaires et interactions plante-microorganismes” Dijon in June 2011. She joined the Robatzek lab in October 2012 and is interested in the role of FLS2 endosomal transport in plant immunity.
Jelle Postma – Msc Student
Jelle.Postma@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Jelle obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands in 2012. He started his Master in Molecular Ecology and joined the Robatzek group in April 2013 for an internship to investigate the dynamic subcellular localization of receptor complexes.
Stephanie Solle – Msc Student
Stephanie.Solle@sainsbury-laboratory.ac.uk
Stephanie graduated with a BSc in Biology from the Technical University of Darmstadt, where she specialized in Plant Biotechnology. She is currently enrolled with the MSc programme in Biology of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. During her time in the Robatzek group, her research interest focuses on the regulation of FLS2 internalization.
Heidrun Häweker - Technician
Heidrun started working at the MPIPZ Cologne within the frame of ZIGIA. In the Robatzek lab she is working on different aspects of FLS2-mediated immunity, which she continues at TSL.
Alumni
Denise Altenbach - Postdoctoral Fellow 2006-2007
Maik Böhmer - Postdoctoral Fellow 2006
Christine Faulkner - Postdoctoral Fellow 2011-12
Nicolas Frei dit Frey - Postdoctoral Fellow 2007-2010
Vera Göhre - Postdoctoral Fellow 2006-2010
Thomas Liebrand - MSc Student 2009
Rosa Lozano-Duran - Postdoctoral Fellow 2011
Yi-Ju Lu - PhD Student 2008-2011
Sophia Mersmann - PhD Student / Postdoctoral Fellow 2006-2010
Susanne Salomon - PhD Student / Postdoctoral Fellow 2006-2010
Martin Schattat - Postdoctoral Fellow 2012
Sebastian Schaaf - Bsc Student 2007
Thomas Spallek - PhD Student / Postdoctoral Fellow 2009-2012
James Strutt - Internship Student 2011-2012
Damar Tri-Anggoro - ERASMUS Student 2011
Fabio Gervasi - Internship Fellow 2012 -2013
Awarded
PhD degree April 2012: Congratulations to Yi-Ju Lu!!
(from left): Martin Hülskamp, Silke, Ute Höcker, Yi-Ju, Swen Schellmann, Jane Parker
PhD degree November 2011: Congratulations to Thomas Spallek!!
(from left): Thomas Liebrand, Matthieu Joosten, Thomas, Vera, Silke, Susanne
PhD degree June 2010: Congratulations to Madlen Vetter!!
(from left): Madlen, Juliette, Silke
PhD degree Oct 2009: Congratulations to Sophia Mersmann!!
PhD degree June 2009: Congratulations to Susanne Salomon!!
PhD degree June 2009: Congratulations to Susanne Salomon!!
Group Activities
SR Group enjoying Malaga 2010 (Bollero meeting)
(from left): Yi-Ju, Martina, Malick, Silke, Thomas, Gildas
SR Group at TSL
BBQ at Silke’s home: (from left, back): Malick, Gildas, Heidrun, Yi-Ju, Rosa, Martina, James, Silke, Emily (summer student); (from left, front): Martin (future postdoc), Ji, Will (associated PhD student)
(from left): Heidrun, Thomas, Silke, Gildas, Malick, Martina, Yi-Ju
SR Group at TSL - lab outing 2010
(from left): Thomas, Sophia, Vera, Yi-Ju, Martina, Heidrun, Gildas, Silke
SR Group at the MPIPZ Cologne 2009
(from left): Thomas, Sophia, Heidrun, Petra, Nicolas, Yi-Ju, Gildas, Susanne, Tom, Silke and Vera.
SR Group at the MPIPZ Cologne 2008
(from left): Sophia, Stephanie, Susanne, Heidrun, Nicolas, Petra, Silke, Vera, Yi-Ju, Thomas and Madlen (PhD student, collaboration with Juliette de Meaux Group).
Bollero Meeting Buchberg 2007
Members of the Robatzek group from the MPIZ Cologne (Denise, Vera, Sophia, Madlen, Thomas and Silke) at the 2nd "Bollero" retreat. The group of Thomas Boller (Basel) invited the groups of Jürg Felix (Tübingen), Birgit Kemmerling (Tübingen) and Cyril Zipfel (Norwich) to Buchberg, Switzerland, for discussions about PAMP-triggered immunity in plants.
