Mickaël DURAND: The Plant Cell First Author

Mickaël DURAND, first author of “The Arabidopsis transcription factor NLP2 regulates early nitrate responses and integrates nitrate assimilation with energy and carbon skeleton supply”

Curent Position: Associate professor, Plant Biomolecules and Biotechnology lab, Université de Tours, France

Education: PhD in Plant Molecular Physiology, Université de Poitiers, France

Non-scientific interests: gravel and road bike, running, podcasting, pampering my child

Brief bio: I define myself as a plant biologist, adept at integrative approaches, with an affinity for bioinformatics and the analysis of large data sets. These integrative approaches, aimed at deciphering plant physiology, are part of a context of functional genomics, metabolomics and molecular physiology. The use of “omics” approaches (genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics) has introduced me to bioinformatics as well as to the manipulation and analysis of large datasets.

My work has long focused on Arabidopsis thaliana. During my PhD, under the supervision of Dr. Rémi Lemoine, I worked on source-to-sink transport of carbon in response to water deficit. As a postdoctoral researcher, together with Dr Anne Krapp and Pr. François Roudier, I was mainly focused in deciphering the molecular key regulators of transcriptional response to nitrate.

Now, as an associate professor with a dual expertise in plant biology and bioinformatics, I am involved in elucidating plant-specialized metabolism in non-model species.