Welcome to the Laboratory

Defense and Recovery of Plants

News

June 2026: Dmitry participated in the Leafy Hydroponics Summit (June 15-16). Many thanks to Cultivators for the invitation. This event provided excellent opportunities to learn about the sector and network with growers and other value chain partners.

June 2026: Our lab participated in Fascination of Plants Day at Utrecht University. We gave our thoughts on the importance of collaborating with industry. You can also find a poster from our lab on the event’s website. Many thanks to Mariana Vega Blanes for organizing the event.

June 2026: Paper about Lettuce Expression Browser (LettuceKnow, with contributions from the lab) is now published in The Plant Journal.

May 2026: Iñigo’s work on the LNR receptor was presented at the annual NWO Life meeting in Egmond aan Zee. We had a great Q&A after that.

April 2026: 5 BSc students from the MBLS program started there 2-month internships in the lab on diverse topics related to immunity and growth-defense trade-off. Welcome to the lab!

January 2026: Iñigo Bañales started his postdoc project with us, studying the mechanisms of plant recovery from immunity-related stress.

December 2025: Our work about the role of the TOPLESS family in the regulation of PAMP-triggered immunity was presented at the Science for Life meeting in Utrecht.

November 2025: Our study from LettuceKnow on the identification of a first PAMP receptor in lettuce is on bioRxiv! The work is led by Iñigo Bañales. This receptor belongs to LRR-type receptor-like kinases and recognizes highly conserved heptapeptide motif within NEP1-like proteins found in prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes.

October 2025: Lettuce Expression Browser, a result of our work in the LettuceKnow consortium, is available to public, and the preprint can be found on bioRxiv.

October 2025: Revika Sethi, MSc student in the program Science and Business Management (UU), starts her major research internship with Leroy on the growth-immunity crosstalk control by transcription factors in lettuce.

October 2025: Our research on growth-defense trade-off in lettuce with Bart Schimmel from LettuceKnow as a lead researcher is highlighted by NPEC (Netherlands Plant Ecophenotyping Centre)

August 2025: Paper published in PNAS in August 2025 (in collaboration with the Parker laboratory at MPIPZ, led by Junli Wang)