Andres Posbeyikian

I’m passionate about a branch of biology that’s called biomimetics. In a nutshell, it’s a discipline that looks to Nature for inspiration on how to solve our engineering and design problems.

In Buenos Aires I researched alginate-based, slow-release fertilizers, studying their synthesis and determining their effectiveness on eucalyptus and maize plants through a plant-physiology approach.

At TSL, I’ve joined a team that’s focused on studying how integrated domains (IDs) in plant NLR immune receptors interact with pathogen effectors. I am working on the Pikobody project which is testing receptor-nanobody fusions through engineered IDs that are being tailored to help plants raise a response against pathogen effectors. The aim is developing made-to-order synthetic plant immune receptors, thus harnessing and retooling the plant immune system.