Liat Adler: Plant Physiology First Author

Liat Adler, first author of “New horizons for building pyrenoid-based CO2-concentrating mechanisms in plants to improve yields”

Current Position:   PhD student at the University of Edinburgh

Education:   Msci in Biochemistry and a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge

Non-scientific Interests:  Exploring the Scottish Highlands through swimming, climbing and walking. When I’m not outdoors I enjoy pole dancing, acro, and making art out of pressed leaves or things I find on the beach

Brief bio:

I’ve always been interested in all aspects of science and tried to delay specialising as much as possible by applying for a Natural Sciences degree. Just before starting, I had my first brush with photosynthesis during a pre-university summer programme. I was lucky to join Ron Milo’s lab and their quest for making a CO₂-fixing E. coli strain for three fantastic weeks. I didn’t know it then, but the seed had been planted! During my degree, I had the opportunity to work in Chris Howe’s lab investigating the impact of bio-photovoltaics on the electron transport chain in cyanobacteria and then completed a master’s project with synthetic biology extraordinaire Jim Haseloff generating fluorescent membrane markers for Marchantia polymorpha. Now, I am in the McCormick lab pursing a PhD project on engineering an algal CO₂-concentrating mechanism into Arabidopsis and am currently obsessed thylakoid membranes – especially ones associated with pyrenoids!