Conference

The 37^th Molecular Biology of Plants conference (MBP2024) took place at the Sportschule Hennef (close to Bonn, Germany) from 4^th until 7^th March 2024. Conference chair Ute Höcker (University of Cologne) shares both scientific and non-scientific highlights of this annual meeting. This includes the two keynotes on male-female interactions during endosperm development and how potato plants prevent above-ground tuber formation. She also reports the winners of the awards for best talks, best posters and for science communication, as well as about the career session and the outcome of the traditional soccer game between PIs against PhD students and PostDocs. The new venue, Sportschule Hennef, has once again proven to be a first-rate replacement for our previous long-term venue in Dabringhausen.

-> Read more at DBG's website

The programme of the upcoming Conference Molecular Biology of Plants (#MBP2024) in Hennef, Germany, taking place from 4^th to 7^th March 2024, is available now.

Download titles of the keynotes and oral presentations

In the first in person meeting after the Covid-19 pandemic plant scientists discussed recent research results in Hennef from 6^th to 9^th February. In his report, main organizer Professor Andreas Meyer (Bonn) not only names the early career scientists who received science awards, the market place for ideas this conference provided, reports who won the match between students and principal investigators but also describes the diverse audience. His report of the meeting of our Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology (SPPMB) also offers several photos of the meeting and proposes a tasty diet for future astronauts. Read more at DBG's website:

Dr. Tegan Armarego-Marriott and Joram Schwartzmann receive this year’s SciComm–Award for founding the web-based platform Plants and Pipettes, where they blog and podcast about current results in molecular plant science in a witty and informative way. As Schwartzmann puts it; “We like to shed light on scientific publications that we find interesting and that are or were not part of our own, more narrow research focus”. Articles on the blog for example include: “My bees bring all the sugar to the flower” or “The Algae Expert who helped Crack Code in WWII”. The scientists of our Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology Section (SPPMB) want to award their science communication (in short: SciComm) and their talent to explain complicated facts in clear sentences, without over-simplifying the contents. In one of their recent podcasts, “Party of Pokers” they for example introduced underground orchids, microplastics in phytotelmata and bioaerosols over the amazon, and underlay this – as in other podcasts - with acoustic backings.

Armarego-Marriott and Schwartzman became close friends while studying at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam. As early career scientists they founded the Plants and Pipettes platform as part of their desire to go beyond their PhD student ‘day jobs’, to read, write and talk about the wide and fascinating range of plant science, and practice their creative skills in blogging, designing, drawing and podcasting. Ultimately, they hope that Plants and Pipettes can help highlight plants’ role as “an absolute requirement for our continued survival”, and encourage people’s interest in plant science, while also discussing other topics relevant to plant science, such as the need to consider biases and to value diversity.

Armarego-Marriott studied conservation biology and biochemistry before she moved to Potsdam and now works as an editor for a scientific publishing house. Schwartzmann also worked in Potsdam, became a father of two, worked for PLANT 2030, a BMBF-funded agency that covers applied plant research in Germany, and now is working for the Prototype Fund, a BMBF-funded NGO to support open-source software development. In 2019 he won a price for his German video explaining gene editing with the CRISPR-Cas9 technology in the online-competition Fast Forward Science.

Both received the Section's third award for excellent science communication on 8^th February 2023 during the Conference Molecular Biology of Plants (MBP2023) of our Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology (SPPMB) of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG).

-> photos of the awarding ceremony

Sorry, in German only

Eigentlich wollten wir Neues bei der 35. Tagung Molecular Biology of Plants (MBP2022) ausprobieren. Denn aufgrund der Schließung der langjährigen Tagungsherberge in Dabringhausen, mussten die Organisator*innen einen neuen Veranstaltungsort finden. Das gelang im vergangenen Sommer, als die Sportschule Hennef - ansonsten Heimat der sportlichen Elite - als neuer Konferenzort gewonnen werden konnte. Wenn auch nicht ganz so abgeschieden wie das Haus Maria in der Aue, so versprach die Sportschule doch, eine ähnliche Tagungsatmosphäre mit viel Raum für wissenschaftlichen Austausch zu bieten, so wie früher in Dabringhausen. Doch leider machte dem die Pandemie - wie auch im Jahr zuvor - einen Strich durch die Rechnung, so dass auch MBP2022 wieder nur online stattfinden konnte. Das Organisationsteam mit Marcel Quint (Halle), Andreas Meyer (Bonn), Ute Höcker (Köln) und Rüdiger Hell (Heidelberg), technisch verstärkt durch Fabian Haas (Marburg), berichtet von der seit 1988 jährlich stattfindenden Konferenz der Sektion Pflanzenphysiologie und Molekularbiologie, zu der sich mehr als 300 Teilnehmende gleichzeitig am 15. und 16. Februar zusammenschalteten. Neu waren auch ein wissenschaftlicher Preis sowie eine Out of Academia Session.

For his entertaining and creative formats in which he explains plant sciences and genetic engineering for a sustainable future plant scientist David Spencer received the Section's second award for excellent science communication on 15^th February 2022 during the online Conference Molecular Biology of Plants of our Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology (SPPMB) of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG).  

Sorry, further details available in German only.

Für seine humorvolle wie kreative Art, Pflanzenforschung und Grüne Gentechnik allgemeinverständlich zu veranschaulichen, erhält der Pflanzenwissenschaftler David Spencer den diesjährigen Scicomm-Preis für Wissenschaftskommunikation. Spencer wird bald seine Doktorarbeit an der RWTH Aachen abgegeben, in der er den Cumarin-Stoffwechsel in Sojapflanzen gentechnisch so verändert hat, dass sie resistenter gegen Schadpilze werden. Das hilft Spritzmittel ui reduzieren. Da Grüne Gentechnik so ein schlechtes Image hat, wollte er schon früh die Vorteile seiner Forschung erklären. Um das Potential der Pflanzenforschung für eine nachhaltige Zukunft zu veranschaulichen, entwickelte Spencer verschiedene Beiträge: er gewann nicht nur seinen ersten Science Slam, betitelt als "Warum der Mops schlecht atmen kann - und was das mit Gentechnik zu tun hat", sondern auch spätere, die schon mal auf dem Parkplatz des Uni-Rektors in Aachen oder in der Hamburger U-Bahn stattfinden können. Darüber hinaus produzierte er die 20teilige Podcast-Serie Krautnah mit Folgen wie “Pflanzen zähmen leicht gemacht”, „die Retter der Kokosnuss“ oder der „Pflug der Karibik“. Spencer engagiert sich in der Initiative Progressive Agrarwende des Umweltvereins Öko-Progressives Netzwerk e.V., die sich für mehr Nachhaltigkeit in der Landwirtschaft einsetzt ohne “früher war alles besser”-Tenor. Im April wird sein erstes Buch "Alles bio-logisch?!" erscheinen. Spencer wünscht sich noch häufiger öffentliche Dialogformate, um mehr Menschen zu informieren, dass mehr „Natürlichkeit“ nicht automatisch mehr Nachhaltigkeit bedeute. Beispielsweise sei Braunkohle zwar natürlich, eine unnatürlich aussehende Solarzelle produziere jedoch wesentlich nachhaltiger Energie, veranschaulicht  Spencer. Über diesen Preis von einer wissenschaftlichen Organisation freut er sich sehr, „weil ich mir nach der Doktorarbeit auch einen Beruf in der Wissenschaftskommunikation vorstellen kann“.
„Mit dem diesjährigen Scicom-Award würdigt unsere Sektion die viele kreativen Formate von David Spencer und wie er darin mit Humor, anschaulichen Vergleichen und auf erfrischend unterhaltsame Art Menschen an komplexe Forschung heranführt, die sich sonst vielleicht nie auf dieses Thema eingelassen hätten,“ sagt Professorin Andrea Bräutigam von der Uni Bielefeld, Stellvertretende Sprecherin der SPPMB, die auch die Laudatio hielt, als Spencer die Auszeichnung während der virtuell veranstalteten Konferenz Molecular Biology of Plants am 15. Januar empfing.

38^th Conference (MBP2025)

The next Conference Molecular Biology of Plants of the Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology of the DBG will take place at Hennef, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, from 10^th to 13^th February 2025. It will be organized by Prof. Dr. Hans-Henning Kunz (LMU, Munich), Prof. Dr. Christopher Grefen (Bochum), and Prof. Dr. Ute Höcker (Cologne).

37^th Conference (MBP2024)

The Conference Molecular Biology of Plants of the Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology of the DBG took place at Hennef, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, from 4^th to 7^th March 2024. It was organized by Prof. Dr. Christopher Grefen (Bochum), Prof. Dr. Ute Höcker (Cologne), and Prof. Dr. Andreas Meyer (Bonn).

Keynote speakers

• Claudia Köhler (MPI Golm): Epigenetic regulation of plant reproduction
• Pilar Cubas (CSIC Madrid): Genetic control of shoot branching

Welcome

Dear colleagues and friends,

after a successful Molecular Biology of Plants (MBP) meeting at the new meeting place “Sportschule Hennef” in February 2023, we will again have the annual meeting of the Section Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology of the DBG at the Sportschule Hennef, close to Bonn/Siegburg, from March 4-7, 2024. We are looking forward to an exciting meeting with a good mixture of experienced PIs and young researchers at all levels. For registration, please follow the links below. Because spaces are strictly limited, we may have to select attendees if the meeting is overbooked. Applicants who may not get a place this time will have a little credit for their participation in MBP2025.

Looking forward to seeing you in Hennef,
Ute Höcker, University of Cologne
Andreas Meyer, University of Bonn
Christopher Grefen, University of Bochum