1 December 2020 – Plants don’t have eyes, ears, or noses, but they can still compete for territory, fight off pathogens, and seek out food. New EMBO Young Investigator Julia Santiago wants to shine a light on how. “Plants are often overlooked, but we all heavily depend on them, and there are still a lot of things we do not know about how they work or sense their surroundings,” says Santiago, who is a group leader at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. “It raises tough questions, but answering them is crucial to address challenges like climate change.”
Santiago’s team are particularly interested in how the plant cell wall monitors and remodels its chemical structure in response to environmental cues, in coordination with other parts of the cell. “Fundamental sensing and signalling systems are very important for plant development and survival,” she explains. “For example during my PhD, I was studying a signalling hormone that plants use to sense drought – by combining techniques such as structural biology and protein engineering, we grew plants better prepared for water shortages. This opened my eyes to the power of agricultural engineering – it was something that really worked. Multidisciplinary approaches are now firmly embedded in every question my group tackles.”
Santiago’s team features experts in structural biology, quantitative biochemistry, genetics, and cell biology and she says becoming an EMBO Young Investigator will help her solve even more complex puzzles. “What I like the most is to be in contact with people in very different domains and we are always on the lookout for people who do very different things that can help us answer questions,” she says. “This is one of the great things about EMBO: it unites excellent scientists from very diverse disciplines and you can learn a lot. Joining the Young Investigator Programme is a great honour both for me and my team, and being a part of it will enrich our science.”
