Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Antoine Fort

Antoine Fort, co-first author of Gene dosage compensation of rRNA transcript levels in Arabidopsis thaliana lines with reduced ribosomal gene copy number https://bit.ly/3pKnKc5

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher in seaweed breeding and genomics, Plant Systems Biology Lab, NUI Galway, Ireland

Education: Ph.D in Botany and Plant Science, National University of Ireland, Galway

Non-scientific Interests: computing, video games, fishing and snorkeling

Brief bio: Plants are fascinating organisms that have interested me since I learned all about photosynthesis in school. I completed my undergraduate and master degrees with a focus on Plant Science in France before moving to the Republic of Ireland for my Ph.D. Since then, I worked on Arabidopsis thaliana for a few years before jumping a branch of the tree of life to focus on seaweed breeding, genomics and physiology in Dr. Ronan Sulpice lab. I think that seaweeds represent the new frontier in the study of photosynthetic organisms and have an exceptional potential for a marine-based food and feed industry. I believe that knowledge gathered in the academic sector should benefit as fast as possible the wider society, and to this aim at the end of 2020 I co-founded a company, Pristine Coasts Ltd, that provides genomic solutions to seaweed identification and traceability of seaweed products.