Recognizing Plant Physiology author Jonas Blomme

Jonas Blomme, first author of A molecular toolkit for the green seaweed Ulva mutabilis

Current Position: Postdoc in the Phycology Group (Olivier De Clerck; UGent) and Plant Genome Editing Group (Thomas Jacobs; VIB-UGent)

Education: B. Sc and M. Sc. in Biology at UGent; PhD in the Systems Biology of Yield Group (Dirk Inzé; VIB-UGent)

 

Non-scientific Interests: Travel, Music, Literature, Sports, Beer/Brewing

Brief bio:

My PhD focused on plant phenotyping and molecular characterization of Arabidopsis genes. After completion, I followed my interest in marine biology and switched my research focus to the green seaweed Ulva. The Ulva genome project was almost completed when I joined the Phycology Group; providing a unique opportunity to develop molecular tools. Gene characterization studies remain rare for seaweeds and I am happy to contribute to field. We believe this publication will inspire different labs to use Ulva as a model organism to study transgenes. Currently, we are still expanding this green seaweed toolbox, e.g. with new antibiotic resistance markers and mutagenesis. We are also interested in using the tools developed in this study for the characterization of carbon concentrating mechanisms in Ulva.