Recognizing featured Plant Cell first authors: Vera Gorelova

Vera Gorelova is the featured first author of Dihydrofolate Reductase/Thymidylate Synthase Fine-tunes the Folate Status and Controls Redox Homeostasis.

Current Position: PhD candidate at Ghent University looking for a new challenge

Education: MSc. In Biology, Novosibirsk State University, Russia

Non-scientific Interests: travelling, books, baking and eating cakes, skateboarding, playing guitar, being with Gosha.

I started working as a plant biologist during my Master’s studies at Prof. Kochetov’s lab at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics (ICG) (Novosibirsk, Russia) where I investigated a gene involved in proline biosynthesis, an osmolyte involved in plant stress tolerance. Working at ICG I became eager to study how plants adjust their metabolism to withstand environmental stress. For my PhD studies, I joined Prof. Van Der Straeten’s lab at Gent University to investigate the DHFR-TS gene family involved in folate (vitamin B9) biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. We found a hitherto unknown function of folate metabolism in the regulation of redox balance in plants. Now my mind is captivated by the processes that govern plant development. I would like to study how developmental programs are implemented and how plant development is regulated in response to environmental cues.