Rhea Stringer

Rhea is a Research Assistant currently working as part of the Bioimaging platform.

She aims to establish SBF-SEM & Array Tomography techniques for model plant and bacterial samples, which will present an opportunity to address scientific questions relating to Dr Faulkner’s research on plasmodesmata and Dr Schlimpert’s on streptomyces. These narrow, membrane-lined channels through plant cell walls are involved in cell-to-cell communication, and the project aims to survey 3-dimensional plasmodesmal structure in a variety of plant tissues and correlate this with existing functional data. Additionally, the aims of these techniques can explore the cytoplasmic pores connecting adjacent compartments across septal walls found in Streptomyces bacteria, which are thought to facilitate intercellular molecular exchange in a similar way to plasmodesmata in plants.