Recognizing Plant Cell first authors: Michaela Böhm

Michaela Böhm, first author of Channelrhodopsin-1 phosphorylation changes with the phototactic behavior and responds to physiological stimuli in Chlamydomonas

Current Position: PhD student, Cell Biology Division, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen, Germany

Education: M.Sc in Cell and Molecular Biology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen, Germany; B.Sc in Biological Sciences, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen, Germany

Non-scientific Interests: My hamsters, karate, tailoring and sewing

Brief bio: Plants attracted me already during my undergraduate studies. They not only provide food and oxygen but also medicine and their diversity and adaptions to many different environmental conditions fascinates me. I deepened my knowledge in different excursions and seminars. During my bachelor thesis, I worked with Thyme – a traditional medicinal plant – trying to establish a system to classify different chemotypes via RAPID-PCR. Later on for my master thesis, I did mass spectrometry analysis of tobacco plants. Since 2017, I am in the lab of Prof. Kreimer, focusing on the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for my PhD studies. It fascinates me that it is not only a model for studying photosynthesis but also for human diseases based on flagella defects and acts as a source for optogentic tools. My main research focus is on the in vivo regulation and interactions of the photoreceptors Channelrhodopsin 1 and 2.