Group members

 

Dr. Anna Koprivova Anna obtained her PhD in Plant genetics in Kiev, in the Ukraine. After postdoc positions in Gatersleben, Bern, and Freiburg she took over the organization and management of Stan's lab at JIC. Anna is very good with plants, including the fantastic model moss Physcomitrella patens. She has performed three genetics screens to decipher the regulation of root growth by glutathione and demand driven control of sulfate assimilation and has enough mutants to characterize for the next 25 years. Anna is very keen on gardening, cross-stitching and reading psychological crime novels. Be aware of her 1st degree Black Belt in Korean martial art Kuk Sool Won!		Patrycja Baraniecka Patrycja received her M.Sc. degree in Biotechnology at the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. Her Master thesis was devoted to the replication regions of a repABC plasmids Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii TA1. During her studies she was also trainee in the Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding in Jastrzebiec where she was analysing the sequence of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene which is exceptionally helpful in the process of protecting species remaining under legal protection. Patrycja started her PhD in Stan’s lab within international research project BIONUT-ITN. She is going to use different Arabidopsis thaliana accessions and genetic tools to identify genes involved in control of nitrogen and sulphur use efficiency. In her spare time she practices yoga, swims, rides a snowboard but also is interested in aromatherapy, alternative methods of healing and spiritual development.
Michal Bochenek Michal has completed (2004) a M.Sc. degree in Marine biology at University of Gdansk in Poland. He has taken interest in microbiology during his stay at University of Mediterranean in Marseille, where he focused on sulphate-reduction activities of anaerobic bacteria in the deep hypersaline anoxic basins. Since 2007 he is based as a PhD student between Gill Malin's group at ENV, UEA and Stan's group at JIC. In his research project, he addresses particularly algal DMSP cleavage and its turnover. Michal spends his free time practicing scuba diving, sailing and skiing. He is also keen on photography and modern art.		Nicola Hockin Nicola graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Zoology. She then spent a year in the Bahamas doing coral reef conservation, before completing a Masters of Research in Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth. There she was involved in the development of a method for the microparticle bombardment of coccolithophores.  Nicola is interested in biogeochemical cycling by marine algae and the underlying cellular processes involved.  Her PhD is collaboration between the John Innes Centre and the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA. She is going to be investigating on the sulphur metabolism in marine phytoplankton. The main focus of her research will be on sulphur assimilation and the production of DMSP.
Dalibor Huska
Dalibor joined the group for 6 months in a break of his postgraduate study of Plant Anatomy and Physiology at Mendel University in Brno. He obtained M.Sc. degree in plant biotechnology at the same university. His work in Brno is focused on using micro and nano-paramagnetic particles for electrochemical detection and separation methods. In his Ph.D. thesis he aims to use the particles for isolation of specific stress markers from plants. Now he works as a LLP/ERASMUS student between Tamas Dalmay's lab at University of East Anglia and Stan's lab. He wants to find out whether the microRNAs miR395 is a general part of regulatory networks of sulphate assimilation pathway.

Former Lab Members

Liam Daldry (2011)
Martin Walters (2011)
Liam and Martin spent July 2011 in our office to kick off a new approach in the lab in collaboration with Richard Morris. They used our flux data to make the first steps towards kinetic model of sulphate assimilation.

 

Dr. Bok-Rye Lee (2008-2010)

Bok-Rye did her PhD in Korea on interaction of nitrogen metabolism with draught stress. She won a fellowship to stay for one year at JIC to work on interaction between sulfur and nitrogen metabolism in Brassica and to get training in molecular biology. Afterwards she made a big contribution to characterization of mutants in regulation of APR isolated by Anna and generated lots of flux data for different projects. She has moved to East Lansing to go back into the world of nitrogen.

Dr Colette Matthewman (2006-2010)

Colette threw herself into JIC life after joining in 2006 as a PhD student. She did great work characterising the four Arabidopsis thaliana isoforms of ATP sulfurylase, the first enzyme of the sulfate assimilation pathway and their regulation by miR395. She successfully got her PhD and moved to a postdoc position in Denmark changing to work on senescence and barley.

Dr. Sarah G Mugford (2006-2009)

Sarah worked in Stan's lab for 3 years on a BBSRC project. She made an excellent job by characterising four APS kinase enzymes in Arabidopsis and showing the important role of this enzyme for partitioning of sulfur between primary and secondary metabolism. She introduced work on glucosinolates to the lab that is now a large part of Stan’s efforts.

Dr. Kathryn North (2004-2007)

Kathryn is now organising research staff training at the University of Laughborough. She spent almost three years working on projects investigating sulphate assimilation in response to abiotic stress and on natural variation of nutrient use efficiency in Arabidopsis accessions. Kathryn always had a keen interest in issues relating to career progression for researchers, having had the role of Chair of the Post-doc Voice at JIC for 18 months.

Dr. Mark Durenkamp (2006-2007)

Mark has moved to Rothamsted to work on nitrogen metabolism in Miscanthus and later on soil biology. He worked here on the role of DELLA proteins in plant response to nutrient limitation and on the control of root growth by glutathione.

Corinna Hermsen, University of Halle

Initially, in a short break from her PhD Corinna performed a screen of activated tagged library for plants capable of better growth at low nitrogen. Later Corinna returned and performed some experiments on regulation of sulfate assimilation in Physcomitrella that were an important part of her PhD thesis.

Donatella Orlando, University of Basilicata - Donatella spent 6 months of her PhD analysing the effects of sulfur deficiency on glucosinolate contents in different plant species including her favourite rocket. She returned to Potenza and finished her thesis. Now she is enjoying time with her baby daughter.

Visitors

Stine Huseby, Norwegian University of Life Sciences Aas, Norway

As a part of her PhD Stine came to Norwich between our lab and Richard Mithen’s lab at IFR to do some work on glucosinolates. She managed to get some nice results with Arabidopsis to wrap up few of Stan’s projects and with broccoli to bring Stan’s and Richard’s interests even closer.

 

Kaja Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Kaja visited us for 3 months in 2010 to learn some sulfur techniques and to work on sulfur sensing and signalling.

Isabelle Camu, University of Nantes, France
Isabelle did her internship in our lab to characterize another mutant from Anna’s collection.

Verena Adolf, University of Freiburg, Germany
Verena spent the summer 2006 with us to analyse the regulation of sulfate assimilation by short term sulfur deficiency and resupply.

Aleksandra Koralewska, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Aleksandra came to JIC to measure APR activity in plants during S deficiency and resupply for her PhD Thesis.

 

Rico Lippmann, IPK Gatersleben, Germany

Before starting his PhD in Gatersleben Rico spent two months mapping one of our bir mutants and answering some urgent questions in various projects.

 

Prof. Michael McManus, Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand

Michael spent his sabbatical working on expression and characterisation of some interesting proteins from microalgae and he initiated the experiments leading to crystallisation of Stan's favourite enzyme adenosine 5'-phosphosulfate reductase.