Division of Crop Biotechnics | KU Leuven

💡 Crop Biotechnics research & education focuses on sustainable production of agricultural & horticultural products.
We employ a variety of biotechnological methodologies to perform fundamental & applied plant research in both model plants & economically important crops.
🏛️ The division of Crop Biotechnics aims to excel in research and education related to the sustainable production of agricultural and horticultural crops while addressing grand challenges such as climate change, conservation of biodiversity and food security.
- The research in the Van de Poel lab combines plant physiology with molecular biology with a strong focus on plant hormones (e.g. ethylene). The lab’s unique tomato transformation pipeline, seed bank collections (chicory and tomato) and ethylene gas analysis infrastructure serves both academia and industry. In addition, the Van de Poel lab has gained a broad expertise in applied research within the field of innovative and sustainable farming with an emphasis on vertical farming, agrivoltaics, LED-technology and plant sensors.
- The De Storme lab performs fundamental research on reproductive processes in plants, with a focus on meiotic cell division and recombination. Applied research centers on advanced crop breeding and integrates state-of-the-art genetics, -omics and biotechnology tools to facilitate selective breeding and to implement new breeding approaches, such as genomic selection, double-haploid technology and speed breeding. The lab has built a track record on pome fruit genetics and breeding with specific expertise on agronomic and consumer-related traits, such as tree architecture, yield, fruit quality and disease resistance.
- The De Coninck lab focuses on how crops interact with pathogens and beneficial microorganisms, aiming to advance the development of novel and innovative management strategies to tackle economically important diseases and to steer the development of tolerant varieties and the use of biocontrol organisms. The lab has a broad expertise in setting up bioassays with pathogens, molecular characterization of plant defense responses between pathogens and plant roots/fruits, and optimizing alternative (bio)control technologies to boost plant immunity.
- Besides hosting the world collection of banana germplasm, the Vanderschuren lab is recognized as a center of excellence for research on tropical crops such as banana and cassava and has a demonstrated expertise in the study of crop species responses to (a)biotic stresses aiming at identifying marker genes to enable rapid introgression of improved traits, with clear industry applications. The lab also develops cutting edge technologies including new plant breeding technologies and has a long and proven expertise in plant tissue culture and biotechnology as well as plant virology.
- The Mühlemann lab aims to investigate the impact of heat stress on molecular and cellular processes occurring during plant sexual reproduction. Since plant sexual reproduction is extremely sensitive to heat stress, better understanding these responses in crops is highly relevant to improve crop resilience in a warming climate. Building on the basic knowledge acquired through our work, we devise genetic engineering approaches to generate crops with improved reproductive thermotolerance. The lab has a strong expertise in tomato and petunia and uses cell and molecular biology, genetic and ‘omics approaches to uncover responses to heat stress.
- The Ceusters lab focuses on biotic and abiotic stressors in order to secure and augment crop production now and in the future. A main focus is the physiological and biochemical investigation of plant photosynthesis under different conditions of light, temperature, water and nutrient availability. The group has a strong expertise in plants with Crassulacean Acid Metabolism which are exceptionally well adapted to drought stress. In addition the group has a long standing expertise in orchid and bromeliad research.
- The Mehta lab studies plant circadian biology with the aim of engineering climate and geographic adaptation in plants. The lab also develops and applies new experimental methods in high-throughput genomics and proteomics.
📆 This video was made in the spring of 2023
➡️ Find out more? www.biw.kuleuven.be/biosyst/c...