THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY - SEB Autumn 2025 magazine

REAL WORLD CHANGES

The SEB Magazine is published biannually — Spring and Autumn (online) — by the Society for Experimental Biology and is distributed to all SEB members.

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SEB Executive Team:

SEB Main Office

The Society for Experimental Biology County Main, A012/A013 Lancaster University, Bailrigg LA1 4YW, UK admin@sebiology.org

Chief Executive Officer

Pamela Mortimer (p.mortimer@sebiology.org)

Governance Officer

Sarah Ellerington (s.ellerington@sebiology.org)

Conference and Events Managers

Keji Aofiyebi (k.aofiyebi@sebiology.org)

Jennifer Symons (j.symons@sebiology.org)

Membership Manager

Jordy Turl (j.turl@sebiology.org)

Administrator Officer

Olubunmi Oduah (b.oduah@sebiology.org)

Membership & Administration Officer

Julius Kelly (j.kelly@sebiology.org)

Education, Outreach and Diversity Manager Dr Rebecca Ellerington (r.ellerington@sebiology.org)

Outreach Education and Diversity Intern

Gina Vong (intern@sebiology.org)

Communications Manager

Benjamin Danois (b.danois@sebiology.org)

SEB Honorary Officers:

President Gudrun De Boeck (gudrun.deboeck@uantwerpen.be)

Vice President

John Love (J.Love@exeter.ac.uk)

Treasurer Tracy Lawson (tlawson3@illinois.edu)

Publications Officer

Diana Santelia (diana.santelia@usys.ethz.ch)

Plant Section Chair

George Littlejohn (george.littlejohn@plymouth.ac.uk)

Cell Section Chair

Ross Sozzani (ross_sozzani@ncsu.edu)

Animal Section Chair

Felix Mark (Felix.Christopher.Mark@awi.de)

Outreach, Education and Diversity Trustee

Sheila Amici-Dargan (anzsld@bristol.ac.uk)

SEB Journal Editors:

Journal of Experimental Botany

John Lunn (Lunn@mpimp-golm.mpg.de)

The Plant Journal

Katherine Denby (katherine.denby@york.ac.uk

Plant Biotechnology Journal

Johnathan Napier (johnathan.napier@rothamsted.ac.uk)

Conservation Physiology

Andrea Fuller (Andrea.Fuller@wits.ac.za)

Plant Direct

Richard Haslam (richard.haslam@rothamsted.ac.uk)

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board or the Society for Experimental Biology. The Society for Experimental Biology is a registered charity No. 273795

FEATURES SPOTLIGHT

In this Autumn 2025 issue of The Society for Experimental Biology magazine, we celebrate the theme “Real World Changes” which highlights research and initiatives that extend beyond the lab to make tangible impacts on society, the environment, and education. Across animal, plant, and cell biology, our members demonstrate how experimental research can influence the world around us.

FEATURES

In the animal kingdom, biology reaches far beyond laboratory experiments. Taking Animal Biology Beyond the Lab by Alex Evans (page 18) explores how research informs conservation, education, and innovation. One article follows tracking of endangered turtles to guide sustainable fishing practices, while another describes a handson outreach program introducing children to animal adaptations and natural selection. A third story showcases how bio-inspired design is helping tackle environmental challenges like microplastic pollution. These examples reveal how animal biology can make a real-world difference. Cell biology is demonstrating its impact on global challenges as well. Micro to Macro: Examining the Global Impact of Cell Biology by Alex Evans highlights research on sustainable agriculture, innovative use of AI to predict plant resilience, and creative approaches to teaching lab skills. These projects not only advance scientific knowledge but also foster inclusivity and inspire the next generation of STEM talent, showing that cell biology can affect society on multiple levels.(page22) Plant biology, meanwhile, is literally reaching for the stars. Sending Plants to Outer Space: Growing Life Beyond Earth by Caroline Wood on page 26 explores how plant research supports long-term human space exploration, including growing crops in microgravity and designing closed-loop systems for sustainable food production. Other projects investigate how plant systems can be optimized for extreme environments, offering insights that benefit both space missions and agriculture on Earth. Together, these stories illustrate the transformative potential of plant science.

REAL WORLD CHANGES

BY BENJAMIN DANOIS

MEMBERS HIGHLIGHTS

In this issue, we proudly showcase the achievements of our members. From conservation initiatives to innovative education programs, SEB members continually demonstrate creativity, dedication, and impact. Each contribution represents a shining star in the SEB constellation, inspiring peers and the public alike.(page XX)

SPOTLIGHT

This edition features exclusive interviews with Katherine Denby, Editor-in-Chief of the Plant Journal, and Andrea Fuller, Editor-in-Chief of Conservation Physiology. We also highlight two inspirational figures: Jeroen Aeles and Zineb Agourram. These conversations offer insights into leadership, research, and the future of experimental biology.

OUTREACH, EDUCATION AND DIVERSITY

Two-Eyed Seeing / Indigenous Science by Gina Vong (page 54 ) emphasizes integrating Indigenous knowledge with Western science to enhance ecological sustainability and community wellbeing.

Becoming a Media Spokesperson by Caroline Wood (pages 48) offers guidance for biologists to engage with the media, build trust, and communicate clearly with the public.

In Starting a Science Blog, still written by Caroline Wood, (pages 50), the focus is on using blogs to share research, develop writing skills, and foster connections beyond academia.

Finally, How Experimental Biology Can Drive Ecosystem Recovery by Rebecca Ellerington demonstrates how experimental approaches in ecology inform restoration of resilient, biodiverse ecosystems and guide policy decisions. (page 52)

EVENTS

Looking ahead, the SEB Cell Symposium “EcoMito” will take place 19–20 February 2026 in We are excited to announce three major events taking place in 2026:

ECOMITO: BRIDGING CELLULAR PERFORMANCE TO ECOPHYSIOLOGY (ANIMAL SYMPOSIUM)

19–20 February 2026, Lyon, France

Bringing together researchers interested in linking mitochondrial, cellular, and whole-organism performance in ecological contexts.

AI IN BIOLOGY EDUCATION (OED SYMPOSIUM)

9–10 April 2026, Nottingham, UK (with hybrid participation available)

This symposium will explore how Artificial Intelligence can be integrated into biology education in inclusive, ethical, and practical ways. Featuring talks and interactive workshops, it will support educators and researchers in developing new pedagogical approaches.

SEB ANNUAL CONFERENCE FLORENCE 2026

7–9 July 2026, Florence, Italy

Join us for our annual conference focused on the theme of resilience, with sessions across Animal, Cell, Plant, and OED biology.

REMEMBRANCE OF STEVE LONG

We also take a moment to remember the life and contributions of Steve Long, a dedicated SEB member throughout his career. A note honoring his legacy, kindly written by Amanda Cavanagh, is included in this issue. (page 14)

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

PROFESSOR TRACY LAWSON

PRESIDENT, SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY

The world around us is changing fast. The daily news about climate change, (mis)use of artificial intelligence, political instability, and threatening pandemics can be overwhelming and paralysing. We might feel helpless at times, but we are not. Your research matters and can influence Real World Changes .

In the words of Jane Goodall, a truly inspirational scientist, breaker of barriers, persevering and resilient when no one believed in her research, “I want to make sure that you all understand that each and every one of you has a role to play… your life does matter, and every single day you live, you make a difference in the world. And you get to choose the difference that you make.” For us, as experimental biologists, the difference that we make can be through a direct impact by helping to develop vaccines (where would we have been without preceding fundamental science leading to mRNA vaccines only a few years ago), breeding resilient crops, providing data for environmental protection guidelines, and truly understanding the needs and capacities of cells, plants, and animals to help the so much needed conservation and restoration of what is left… But it is also clear that we cannot, and do not need to, do this alone. Citizen science projects and communityled projects create a levering field to promote and use our knowledge. Education and outreach from ‘real scientists’ are needed more than ever in these days of fake news.

Also we, as the Society for Experimental Biology, cannot and do not want to do it alone. We want to involve our membership as much as possible, encouraging members to engage with all aspects of the Society. We always welcome feedback, and by engaging more through Special Interest Groups we want to create opportunities to strengthen our community links. So, don’t be surprised to find some emails from your Special Interest Groups in your inbox soon! One group that already let us know that they want to be more involved are the Early Career Researchers. A new Early Career Working Group will facilitate their participation and create opportunities to contribute to the future of the SEB, ensuring that their voices will be heard.

Of course, we can only do this if we hear from you! Thank you to all delegates who updated their contact details and joined our Special Interest Groups at our fantastic Annual Conference in Antwerp last July. You were wonderful!!! The ‘Room with a Zoo’ conference centre was buzzing with activity, inspiring talks and posters ignited bright ideas, and meaningful collaborations and new friendships were started during the many networking opportunities. I can’t wait for our next meeting in Florence! Can you? But you don’t have to wait that long. Check our website for other events: free webinars from our OED webinar series, from our SEB Career Building and from Conservation Physiology are posted . If you want to stand up for science, join a ‘Sense about Science’ workshop and learn how to engage with the media and increase your impact in our changing world.

And to finish with more of Jane Goodall’s words, “You have it in your power to make a difference. Don’t give up. There is a future for you. Do your best while you’re still on this beautiful Planet Earth that I look down upon from where I am now.”

Be the change you want to see.

I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU ALL UNDERSTAND THAT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU HAS A ROLE TO PLAY… YOUR LIFE DOES MATTER, AND EVERY SINGLE DAY YOU LIVE, YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. AND YOU GET TO CHOOSE THE DIFFERENCE THAT YOU MAKE.

– JANE GOODAL –

Gudrun De Boeck President, Society for Experimental Biology

SEB NEWS

BY JULIUS KELLY

ANTWERP 2025

A HUGE THANK YOU...

Once again, over 100 years since its conception, the Society played host to yet another successful, informative, and social conference in the historic city of Antwerp, Belgium. From a host of guest speakers, workshops, breakout sessions, and special interest group gatherings to 100s of posters and numerous social activities, including the evening walk around the zoo, the conference shone.

We look forward to welcoming you to the 2026 Annual Conference to be held in Florence, Italy (7–9 July), a city renowned for its art, architecture, and culinary expertise. The theme of the 2026 Conference is ‘Resilience’.

SEB THANKS GINA VONG

It was a pleasure to have Gina, a PhD student who spent 3 months interning with the SEB and the Journal of Experimental Botany. During her stay, she contributed to Outreach, Education and Diversity, helping to write articles and educational resources, while gaining insight into the inner workings of a successful society. We thank her for her great work and wish her the best of luck with the rest of her PhD.

SEB SAFETY AND INCLUSIVITY

At the SEB, we are committed to fostering a safe, respectful, and inclusive community for all. The Society is proud to have a Code of Conduct that outlines the standards of behaviour we expect from anyone engaging with SEB, whether as a member, delegate, speaker, or supporter. This Code of Conduct supports the Society’s aim of maintaining a positive and welcoming space where all individuals feel valued and safe.

INTRODUCING THE NEW SEB TRUSTEE STRUCTURE FOR 2025 AND BEYOND

Earlier this year, members were invited to put forward nominations for the 2025 Trustee elections. As a result, we are pleased to confirm the upcoming appointments of two long-standing members of Council to new Trustee roles.

Professor Tracy Lawson, who was due to complete her term as SEB President in July 2025, has been appointed as Treasurer for a 4-year term starting from 8 July 2025.

In addition, the current SEB Treasurer Professor John Love, due to retire from that post in July 2027, will transition into a new role as Vice President (and subsequently President) for a combined 4-year term, also starting from 8 July 2025.

All of us at SEB thank Tracy and John for their continued service, and look forward to the next chapter of their leadership within the SEB.

PLANT ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY GROUP (PEPG) SYMPOSIUM, PORTUGAL 2025

The PEPG’s Field Techniques Workshop took place in September at Naturasolta – Quinta de São Pedro , Portugal. The symposium comprised +90 plant biologists coming together for a series of practical workshops, alongside presenting their work in the form of a poster. The symposium, a biannual event, included 14 established scientists as well as representatives from 10 scientific manufacturers.

JXB 75

2025 celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Journal of Experimental Botany and in this momentous spirit a scientific meeting was held in Edinburgh. The successful meeting attracted a varied range of attendees to share their science, socialize, enjoy the fruits of the city and look forward to the future.

MEMBER NEWS

In each issue of the member magazine, we like to highlight some of the fantastic achievements and research from our members. Here are some of the people we would like to congratulate this time around.

IARI DRUMMOND

University of Plymouth

The SEB would like to congratulate Ari Drummond (University of Plymouth) for the publication of two research papers this summer:

 A sensory investment syndrome hypothesis: personality and predictability are linked to sensory capacity in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, click here for more info)

 Shifting attention: assessing antennular ‘gaze’ in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus (Animal Behaviour, click here for more info)

Ari’s first article received notable media attention, being featured by the BBC (click here for more info) and discussed during a live interview on BBC Radio Devon on 17 July 2025.

SARAH RAYMENT

Nottingham Trent University

The SEB would like to congratulate Sarah Rayment (Nottingham Trent University) on becoming the first Director of the Biosciences Scholarship Research Centre at her university (click here for more info).

She also received one of the prestigious ViceChancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Scholarship, announced in June and to be formally presented during the university’s winter graduation ceremony in December.

DOMINIC HILL

University of Reading

The SEB extends its congratulations to Dom Hill (University of Reading), who was recently honoured at the Potato Industry Awards. Dom’s achievement is especially noteworthy as he is actively seeking roles in science communication and postdoctoral research. We’re delighted to include a link below to the World Potato Congress Industry Awards for readers interested in learning more:

<click here for more info>

CHARLIE WOODROW

The SEB extends its congratulations to Charlie Woodrow on the launch of his new podcast series The Environmental Review, which explores environmental research and current issues in ecology and climate science. The series can be found on Spotify (click here for more info).

Charlie’s work has also attracted media attention and features field research conducted in the Swedish Arctic, including temperature experiments with bumblebees.

Thermal camera image of a buzzing bee with temperature scale in degrees Celsius.

PEPG FIELD TECHNIQUES WORKSHOP 2025 –SCIENCE, SKILLS, AND COMMUNITY IN LISBON

BY AMANADA CAVANAGH

The Plant Environmental Physiology Group (PEPG) gathered this September for its muchanticipated Field Techniques Workshop, hosted at Quinta de São Pedro, a long-running field research site just outside Lisbon. Nestled among olive groves and overlooking the Atlantic, this site has hosted the workshop since 2012 on a biennial basis (pandemic years notwithstanding). It once again provided the perfect backdrop for a week of technical training, collaborative science, and community building for nearly 100 participants from around the world.

SCIENCE AND SKILLS AT THE CORE

The week’s programme wove together lectures, practical sessions, and networking opportunities. The workshop is renowned for blending rigorous technical sessions with an open, collaborative spirit. Mornings were filled with expert-led lectures on everything from gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence to soil–root interactions, ecosystem fluxes, and remote sensing. A key feature of the workshop is the integration of manufacturing partners in the training program, which give participants the opportunity to explore cutting-edge tools, with our partners at METER, LICOR, Walz, Hansatech, Ocean Optics, and JB Hyperspectral providing demonstrations and guidance throughout the week. Afternoons shifted to practical sessions where participants tested instrumentation, explored data workflows, and learned directly from leaders in the field—bridging the gap between theory and practice. Of course, the participants themselves are making exciting discoveries in fields ranging from molecular physiology, phenomics and wholeplant physiology, with a focus on integrating methods across scales. Poster sessions provided a stage for early-career researchers to showcase this work, and it was particularly exciting to see many non-model species featured, demonstrating

the breadth and relevance of plant physiology in diverse real-world systems. Four outstanding presenters were recognised with poster prizes: Phoebe Dibbin-Dean (Trinity College Dublin), Nicola Walter (University of Nottingham), Emilio Villar Alegria (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), and Joe Colbert (UIUC). Their work reflected the scientific breadth and creativity that PEPG workshops consistently foster.

A COMMUNITY THAT CONNECTS

PEPG is the longest running SIG in the plant section, and we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year. The workshop has always been about more than just techniques—it’s about building a community of plant physiologists. This year’s programme wove in plenty of opportunities for connection: a lively wine trail to connect early-career researchers and industrial partners, a competitive trivia night, a midweek surfing trip and Lisbon city explorations, and a relaxed final-night BBQ under clear Portuguese skies. These moments outside the lecture hall fostered friendships, collaborations, and the kind of candid conversations that carry into the lab and field long after the workshop ends.

What makes PEPG special is this blend of serious science and genuine community. Participants leave not only with new technical skills but also with a stronger sense of belonging in a field that thrives on collaboration. As one attendee put it: “You come for the training, but you leave with a network you can lean on for years to come.”

The 2025 workshop exemplified why this event remains a highlight of the SEB calendar and was a testament to the group’s mission: advancing plant environmental physiology through shared knowledge, hands-on learning, and inclusive community. For those who missed it, future workshops promise the same balance of rigorous science, practical skills, and the unmistakable PEPG spirit.

LOOKING AHEAD

The 2025 Field Techniques Workshop was supported by SEB Symposium funding. As PEPG approaches its 50th anniversary in 2026, members can look forward to more celebratory events and continued leadership in advancing plant environmental physiology.

STEPHEN P. LONG, FRS (1951–2025) A TRIBUTE FROM THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND THE PLANT ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY GROUP (PEPG)

BY AMANADA CAVANAGH

If you’d ever met Steve Long, you probably remember a few things: he could likely out-pace you on a run, probably outwit you with a practical joke, and certainly talk your ear off about photosynthesis. Often, he could manage all three in the same day.

After studying Agricultural Botany at the University of Reading, Steve completed his PhD at the University of Leeds in 1976 under Harold Woolhouse, for whom the SEB’s Woolhouse Lecture in plant sciences is named (which Steve himself delivered in 2008).

Steve’s doctoral work explored the chilling tolerance of C4 plants, and though he eventually traded saltmarshes for agricultural fields, the curiosity that started there never faded. In 1975 Steve joined the University of Essex, where he spent almost a quarter of a century building one of the most respected groups in photosynthesis and environmental physiology. His earliest work focused on creating methods to study leaf-level photosynthesis and scale it to field models at a time when there were no commercial cuvettes and infrared gas analysers were noisy and temperamental. Colleagues recall this period as one requiring “equal parts perspiration and inspiration.” These experiences shaped Steve’s enduring philosophy: the best science arises from both rigorous measurement and inventive problem-solving.

This approach carried naturally into his engagement with the SEB’s Plant Environmental Physiology Group (PEPG). Steve became a key figure in SEB’s Plant Section, ensuring environmental physiology was recognised as a vital part of plant science. He was a consistent supporter of the PEPG Field Techniques Workshops, attending and presenting since the 1990s and every year since their revival in 2012. These workshops exemplified his belief

in hands-on training, mentorship, and building scientific community. In fact, Steve could often be found scouting rising research talent for his lab throughout the practical and social sessions of this very workshop.

In 1999, Steve moved to the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, where he eventually became the Stanley O. Ikenberry Chair Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences. He led a world-class program revolutionizing improving photosynthetic efficiency and crop improvement, mentoring a generation of scientists and driving research with global impact. Steve also shaped scientific

Steve Long and Steven Driever (WUR) preparing plants for measurements at the 2023 PEPG Field Techniques workshop.

publishing, serving as founding editor of Global Change Biology, GCB Bioenergy, and in Silico Plants, and was a long-serving section editor of Plant, Cell & Environment. Across his work, he combined scientific rigor with curiosity, humour, and generosity, whether in the field, or a postworkshop or seminar discussion.

Steve Long’s legacy is profound: through his research, mentorship, and unwavering support for the SEB community, he helped define what it means to study plants in their environment. His impact will be felt for generations, both in the research he produced and the people he inspired.

Above

Steve with PEPG members at the Field Course in 2023. Back (from L-R): Steve Long, Yazen Al-Salman, Steven Driever, Carl Bernacchi, Richard Webster, Howard Griffiths, Tracy Lawson, Andrew Leakey. Front: Caitlin Moore, Shellie Wall, Amanda Cavanagh, Liana Acevedo-Siaca, and Hannah Schneider.

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TAKING ANIMAL BIOLOGY BEYOND THE LAB

BY ALEX EVANS

Experimental biology helps us to explore the fundamentals of animal biology, but research isn’t conducted in a vacuum, and these scientific advances often have significant and practical applications in the realms of education, conservation, and policymaking. This is just a snapshot of the ways in which animal biology is currently impacting the wider world.

BIOLOGGERS AT LOGGERHEADS

Sea turtles are facing a growing number of threats to their survival, not least of which is the ongoing encroachment of human activity into their natural habitat, which carries with it a range of concerning hazards for vulnerable marine life. Thankfully, there are researchers out there who are providing important data-backed insights for practical wildlife conservation. “I’ve always been fascinated by turtles, and they’re really what first inspired my passion for marine biology and conservation,” says Amy Bowler, who recently completed her integrated masters in Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter. “I remember being struck by images in David Attenborough documentaries of turtles caught in fishing nets, which made me aware of the threats they face.”

It was during her time in Exeter that Amy took a module with Dr Lucy Hawkes that first sparked her interest in how technology and data could be used for effective wildlife conservation. “From there, I worked with her to develop my master’s project, where I combined turtle tracking data she had collected with fisheries data, to look at risks

of fishery bycatch on loggerhead turtles in Cabo Verde, which is home to the world’s third-largest loggerhead nesting colony,” she says.

Amy’s research was especially focused on the potential impacts of bycatch, which is the unintentional capture of non-target species while fishing. This can often result in injury, stress, and even deaths, all of which pose a serious threat to loggerhead populations. “Northwest Africa is a particular bycatch hotspot because it hosts the world’s third-largest nesting colony, while also experiencing intense and often unregulated fishing activity, and models indicate a risk of population declines if bycatch continues unchecked,” explains Amy. “Current solutions range from safer handling of incidentally caught turtles to gear modifications like turtle excluder devices, which let turtles escape from fishing nets, while area-based approaches, such as marine protected areas or seasonal closures, can also help reduce risk.”

However, these solutions often require accurate and reliable information to be effective, which isn’t always readily available. Addressing these important gaps in the data formed the basis of Amy’s

in Northwest Africa. “Twenty-six turtles were fitted with satellite transmitters to track their movements,” she explains. “I combined this with fishing effort data from Global Fishing Watch, which uses automated ship tracking data to create a global record of fishing activity.” By overlapping these datasets, Amy was able to quantify the amount of overlap between turtles and fisheries to examine the potential bycatch risk. Interestingly, the data not only looked horizontally across area, but also vertically across depth, adding a three-dimensional perspective of the aquatic dimensions involved. Finally, Amy drew conclusions from her calculations and reviewed current loggerhead conservation policies to consider just how effective existing measures are, and where management could be strengthened. Amy strongly believes that these results could have clear implications for fisheries management and hopes that they will be used accordingly. “I found that turtles and fisheries overlap extensively, both horizontally and vertically, with trawling emerging as the biggest risk,” she says. “I also identified key countries whose fishing activity coincides with turtle movements, showing where management action could make the most difference.”

The findings of this research help to demonstrate how the existing protections in place don’t always reflect the true risks of bycatch, and any enforcement of bycatch measures is currently limited,

making it even more important that research like Amy’s is integrated into management strategies. “My results suggest that solutions like gear modifications, such as turtle excluder devices, could be particularly effective,” she says. “It’s also important that any new management measures are adapted to the local socioeconomic context. This region is a global hotspot for loggerhead bycatch, which represents a major threat to the population. Addressing this issue is therefore critical to securing the long-term future of one of the world’s most significant loggerhead turtle populations.”

Considering next steps for this area of research, Amy knows that there is still work to be done, but that modern techniques are more than up to the task. “As technology develops, biologging and modelling approaches will continue to offer powerful tools for understanding turtle movements, and predicting when and where risks are highest,” she says. “Expanding these approaches across multiple species and regions could also provide a more complete picture and support coordinated conservation strategies.” Finally, Amy would like to acknowledge the team of researchers that collected the valuable turtle tracking data,1 and to add that her thesis research is currently being prepared for publication.

MY RESULTS SUGGEST THAT SOLUTIONS LIKE GEAR MODIFICATIONS, SUCH AS TURTLE EXCLUDER DEVICES, COULD BE PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE

THE TRUE EXTENT OF BYCATCH RISK IS PROBABLY UNDERESTIMATED

SKULL SKILLS FOR KIDS

Modern academics in scientific fields have two primary responsibilities. Firstly, to contribute new and exciting knowledge to the wider scientific community. Secondly, to directly educate university scholars seeking to understand and build on this knowledge themselves. But who says this responsibility needs to start and end with university students? Why not spark that curiosity and thirst for knowledge in younger minds? These are questions that are certainly old news to two researchers in the UK who have been adapting their undergraduate practical workshops to inspire younger audiences. Dr Kelly Ross, a lecturer in the School of Biosciences at the University of Liverpool, UK, and her colleague Dr Michael Berenbrink, a senior lecturer at the

Kelly and Michael presenting their skulls at the Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool.

credit: Kelly Ross.

Right:

Photo

University of Liverpool in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, are responsible for taking one of Michael’s university practical classes and unleashing it on the public. “My PhD supervisor, Michael, came up with the idea, as he already had this fantastic evolutionary biology undergraduate practical using mammalian skulls,” says Kelly.

The first time that Kelly and Michael began to deliver this workshop was around Halloween, and they dived head first into the theme ‘Spooky Science’ with their skull-filled workshop. “We even had some fairy lights inside the skulls and darkened the room, but this got a bit too scary for some of the younger kids and we left that bit out in later incarnations of the activity,” says Kelly. “It was a way of taking something we already do well at the university and making it accessible, exciting, and fun for a whole new audience.”

Kelly says that the driving force behind adapting a workshop focused on animal anatomy and identification skills was providing children an opportunity to engage with real scientists and real scientific techniques, without infantilizing their audience. “I think real-world science gives children that ‘wow’ moment, the chance to see and touch something tangible, and realize they’re learning the same science that older students do. It makes science feel alive and relevant to their own experiences,” she explains. “That kind of hands-on, inquiry-based learning helps build curiosity and critical thinking, and hopefully sparks an interest that could grow into a lifelong passion for STEM.” Rebuilding an undergraduate workshop for a completely different audience is no easy feat and came with its share of challenges for Kelly and Michael. “The biggest challenge was definitely translating university-level material into something that young children could engage with,” she explains. “It meant rethinking the tools, so instead of dichotomous keys, which are quite abstract, we made it much more playful. Children are given clues—like what the animal eats, what its footprints look like, or even what its poo looks like—and then they match those to the skulls. We also weave in storytelling and visuals, so it feels like a detective game rather than a classroom exercise.”

While it may have been a difficult task to get off the ground, this has been more than compensated for by the incredible opportunities it has provided for local young people. “We get to bring children into university spaces, let them meet real scientists, and create positive experiences of higher education early on,” says Kelly. “It’s also a great way for the university to build relationships with the community.” Kelly and Michael have also delivered this activity as a more widely accessible ‘Skull Detectives’ workshop outside of the Halloween season, which introduces children to a variety of skulls from mammalian species that may be encountered in the wild in the UK. “The activity subtly shows how their presence can be detected from their tracks and ‘droppings’, and what foods, and thereby

REAL-WORLD SCIENCE GIVES CHILDREN THAT ‘WOW’ MOMENT

environments, they depend on for their existences,” says Kelly. “This was used to raise awareness of shrinking habitats and the conservation of species, including reintroductions, such as that of beavers into England.” By demonstrating the difference in form and function between the teeth of carnivorous, herbivorous, and omnivorous species that aligned with their favoured diets, Kelly and Michael were able to educate the children on the core principles of adaptation and natural selection. To bring it all home, they also encourage the children to examine their own teeth and compare the similarities and differences they find with their mammalian cousins.

The response to these adapted animal biology workshops has been overwhelmingly positive, with the project even winning an outreach award from the Institute of Integrative Biology. “Children consistently rated the activity very highly, and teachers told us how much their students enjoyed it,” says Kelly. “We’ve run the session multiple times at the University of Liverpool, as well as at the Liverpool World Museum’s ‘Meet the Scientist’ day in support of the university’s wider goals of promoting access and participation in science.”

FISHY FILTRATION

There are few words in the modern English language that are as universally despised as “microplastics”. Whether created intentionally, or as the byproduct from a gradual breakdown of larger plastics, microplastics represent an ever-growing threat to marine life across the globe with potentially catastrophic knock-on consequences for humanity. Thankfully, Dr Leandra Hamann, a postdoctoral

Top Roght: The filtration system inside the mouth of an Atlantic mackerel.

Photo credit: Leandra Hamann.

THE FILTER ELEMENT MIMICS THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE GILL ARCH SYSTEM THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE WAS DEFINITELY TRANSLATING UNIVERSITYLEVEL MATERIAL INTO SOMETHING THAT YOUNG CHILDREN COULD ENGAGE WITH

Right: Leandra investigating the filter mechanisms of manta rays.

Photo credit: Leandra Hamann.

Left: The filter elements tested by Leandra.

Photo credit: Leandra Hamann.

researcher at the University of Bonn, Germany, has been working towards a natural engineering solution to this wholly unnatural problem. “I was always fascinated by the idea of mimicking biological principles to improve engineered systems,” she says. “The proof of concept already exists in nature and you just have to transfer it, which sounds simple, but it is much more complex and difficult than that.”

The reason that microplastics are such a major issue is that they are physically persistent and accumulate easily in marine environments. During this time, they can be ingested by various organisms; they then steadily build up in tissues and organs, and eventually get passed on up through the food chain to larger and larger predators. “The effects on the organisms very much depend on the type of animal and the type of microplastics,” says Leandra. “For example, mussels retain microplastics through filter-feeding and they can then be found in various organs where they can have adverse health effects. Unfortunately, many organisms have not been studied for the health effects posed by microplastics yet, so there is ongoing research to fully estimate the long-term risks.”

One of the major sources of marine microplastics from Europe are fibres released from washing machines into the sewer system and out into

the oceans. The challenge that Leandra set for herself was to identify and implement a bioinspired filter that would help to reduce the quantity of microplastic fibre emission from such washing machines. “My research contributed to understanding animal biology and helping to develop new products and processes,” she says. “I was working on the problem of microplastic pollution and started thinking about using filterfeeders as biological models to develop new filters and reduce microplastic emissions.”

It is important to understand that the mechanisms that filter-feeders employ in the wild are surprisingly diverse, and finding the best fit for this project was not an easy task. “There are over 35 different particle separation mechanisms in filter-feeders and I needed to pick one that was suitable to design a washing machine filter,” says Leandra. “I briefly looked at the mucus filtration in sea squirts, and the depth filtration in flamingos, but then settled with the cross-flow filtration in ram-feeding fishes.”

For 2 years, Leandra studied different fish species to gain a deep understanding of their filter-feeding

mechanisms, before being able to translate it into a simplified 3D-printed model capable of being fitted to a washing machine.

The product of Leandra’s experimentation is a functional prototype for a fish-inspired filter, which consists of a filter element and the housing fitted around it. “The filter element mimics the morphology of the gill arch system in the fish mouth,” she explains. “For example, it has a similar mesh size, a similar tapered geometry, and a similar angle of attack.” The physical properties of the filter element provided Leandra with just the right conditions to maximize filtration, while the housing helped direct and control the flow of water in and out of the filter, even including two valves that mimic the periodic cleaning and swallowing mechanisms of the fish. “In laboratory experiments, we found that the fish filter has a retention efficiency of 97.5% for standardized microplastics fibres, which is as good as conventional filter designs,” she says. “However, the fish filter has the great advantage of collecting the fibres outside the filter element and housing through the specialized cleaning mechanism; therefore, clogging is delayed, and it is much easier to remove and deposit the collected microplastics.”

As for future development of these fish-inspired filters, Leandra sees two paths ahead. Firstly, more research to aid in developing and improving the mechanics of the filter-feeding system, or even comparative investigations into other biological models for the filters. Secondly, examining the practicalities of translating these bio-filters into a mass-producible filter that could be implemented in all washing machines to significantly reduce microplastic release. “The filter still needs to be improved and optimized to fit technical requirements,” says Leandra. “But I am not an engineer or product designer, so I really hope that a company will pick up the idea and develop it further into a finished product.”

References: 1 Lucy A Hawkes, Annette C Broderick, Michael S Coyne, Matthew H Godfrey, Luis-Felipe Lopez-Jurado, Pedro LopezSuarez, Sonia Elsy Merino, Nuria Varo-Cruz, and Brendan J Godley.

MICRO TO MACRO: EXAMINING THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF CELL BIOLOGY

COULD PLANTS BE THE NEW PESTICIDES?

BY ALEX EVANS

Many world-changing discoveries began under a microscope, before radically altering the way that we live our lives. Let’s take a look at examples of projects by SEB Members that have taken their research out of the lab and into the “real world”.

Food security is an ever-growing global concern, drawing attention from plant and cell researchers all around the world… but what does it take to go from lab-based fundamental research to practical application on an industrial scale? Dr Søren Bak, Professor at the Faculty of Science’s Department of Plant and Molecular Biology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, has been studying plant defence compounds for 25 years and, more recently, has been looking to transfer his findings into tangible products for these global agricultural issues. “For the last couple of years, I’ve had a real interest in how we can translate this into something that can be useful in society,” he says. “We’ve stumbled around some molecules that we now think have potential to be part of a solution.”

Søren’s research has primarily focused on the pesticidal properties of saponins, a diverse group of toxic compounds found in many plant tissues. Saponins have been used throughout human history for their biological properties, with more recent uses including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and as adjuvants in vaccine development. Søren is most interested in their use as a pesticide because they act in ways that differentiate them from other synthetic agents. “Many insecticides target the muscle or nerve function, but these target membrane structures,” he explains. “There is a lot of variety between the compounds as some are very highly active, and some are completely inactive. It can be hard when talking to potential investors because they don’t understand that there are thousands of different saponin structures with different biological functions.”

Some of Søren’s recent work has demonstrated that these compounds possess positive properties that other synthetic pesticides do not. “We now have the first papers coming out showing that they actually bind to soil and there are bacteria that will break them down,” he says. “The main problem

with the synthetic pesticides is that they sort of just rush through the soil structures and end up where we don’t want them, so that we’re pretty happy about.” As an example of the protective power of saponins, Søren explains how they have used extracts from Barbaria vulgaris, painted them onto some leaves while leaving others bare, and then exposed them to a common pest species. “We added diamondback moth larvae, which is a major pest in agriculture and crucifers,” he says. “Those that were treated with the extracts are not eaten, but the other ones that are not treated, they are eaten.”

This is a critical time for developing natural plant compounds into practical applications, since the EU (European Union) is committing to reducing its reliance on synthetic pesticides by 2030, adding to the drive to research alternative solutions. But as Søren explains, conducting the fundamental research is one thing; acquiring funding to take that research to the next stage is entirely different. “My main problem is decoding how we create funding for moving a project that is a basic science project into innovation,” he says. “There’s this valley of death between having the basic science working and then finding somebody that will put real money into it.”

One major barrier that Søren is up against is EU regulation 1107, which regulates plant-derived defence compounds the same way it regulates synthetic pesticides. “That’s not what is happening in Brazil, in the USA, and many other countries,” he explains. “In the EU, there is a conservative view that these are like synthetic compounds, even though they are derived from nature.” Søren would like for these natural plant compounds to be reclassified as ‘low-risk substances’ that have a proven safety and a low environmental impact, and face fewer restrictions on their deployment, but this goal may still be a while away. “There’ve been a lot of disappointments, but I find it very

Right:

The core team at MetaboHUB-Bordeaux Metabolome in the Fruit Biology and Pathology laboratory (Rémy Cordazzo, Chemical Engineer;  Pierre Pétriacq, Head of Bordeaux Metabolome; Claudia Rouveyrol, Technician). Photo credit: Sarah Rayment.

WE ARE LOOKING AT CREATING A SHARED LANGUAGE

Søren’s current solution is the BioPlanPro project, where he is exploring the wider world of innovation and legal barriers that might delay the implementation of naturally occurring plant defence compounds into agriculture. “We are looking at creating a shared language, a common understanding that can bridge these barriers,” he says. Even deciding on something as seemingly simple as a name for these compounds needs to be explored and discussed with the correct stakeholders to minimise the risks of a cultural backlash, like the negative response that genetically modified organisms (GMO s) received across Europe in previous years. “We’re interviewing a lot of different stakeholders, advisors, farmers, consumers, interest organisations, and EU regulatory bodies,” he says. “We are trying to extract who thinks what, who says what, and where the important overlaps are.”

While the journey so far has been difficult, Søren believes that this project is an important step forwards in reducing our reliance on synthetic pesticides and moving towards more natural solutions. “My motto is to learn from nature and work with nature, and that’s what we want to do here,” he says. “We want to purify compounds that exist in nature and then use them as they were supposed to be used, to allow plants to defend themselves against insect pests and fungal pests.”

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE WORLD OF OMICS

It should come as no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI) is officially here to stay. What was once science fiction has rapidly become a household name, as well as a powerful tool for the advancement of biological research. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and many

MY MOTTO IS TO LEARN FROM NATURE AND WORK WITH NATURE

Left Page: Sarah’s colleague Dr Bunmi Omorotionmwan with participating students at the University of Benin, Nigeria.

Photo credit: Sarah Rayment.

scientists are calling for these tools to be treated with respect to ensure that they’re being used both effectively and ethically in the name of science. “AI has made remarkable breakthroughs in the analysis of complex, multiscale, and heterogeneous datasets,” says Dr Pierre Pétriacq, an Associate Professor in plant physiology at the University of Bordeaux, France, and director of MetaboHUB-Bordeaux Metabolome facility. “Naturally, I began using AI to process omics datasets in order to extract as much relevant information from them as possible.”

The advent of accessible AI has brought many benefits to the world of cell biology research, allowing for new discoveries and rapid advances in our learning that may have previously been beyond our reach. “AI and machine learning offer powerful means to decode the complexity of biological systems,” says Pierre. “At the cellular and molecular level, they enable us to integrate and interpret high-dimensional omics data, predict phenotypic outcomes from molecular profiles, identify key biomarkers and regulatory pathways, and accelerate hypothesis generation and experimental design.”

While many of AI’s advantages are broadly applicable across experimental biology, some areas of research benefit even more than others, as Pierre explains. “These tools are especially valuable in metabolomics, where the data are often noisy, heterogeneous, and deeply interconnected with phenotype,” he says. “Machine learning helps us move beyond descriptive analysis towards predictive and mechanistic understanding.” However, despite the relatively sudden ease at which AI and machine learning have become integrated into our society, these systems are still in constant development and can be prone to mistakes, which, in the context of high-impact biological research, could have catastrophic consequences. “One major challenge is the integration of diverse omics datasets in a way that preserves biological meaning and interpretability,” explains Pierre. “This is crucial for translating AI-driven insights into actionable strategies in agriculture and conservation, including enhancing crop resilience through omics-informed breeding or informing agroecological transitions with predictive models of plant–environment interactions.”

Pierre also makes the case that AI can be a useful tool in helping to support data-driven policymaking around critical topics such as biodiversity, sustainable farming, and ecosystem services, but that in order to do so, the right guidance frameworks and collaborations need to be agreed upon first. “To truly harness the potential of AI in research and innovation, we need to adopt FAIR-compliant1 data practices, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, and ensure our models are transparent and explainable,” he says. “We’re making real progress towards interoperable data ecosystems, but strategic effort and shared commitment are still needed to close the gap.”

In practicality, these AI tools are typically developed using large training sets and make use of machine learning algorithms to identify patterns in data, and to make predictions or observations that may be hidden to the human eye. Here are a few recent examples of where AI has been used to impact the world of omics research. “For example, in the Atacama Desert, metabolomics-based machine learning has revealed a core set of metabolites linked to extreme climate resilience across diverse plant species,” says Pierre. “Notably, recent studies have extended this insight beyond leaf and soil metabolomes to include the soil microbiome, offering a multilayered understanding of plant adaptation to harsh environments.”

“Additionally, in a recent submitted study, we show that plant–fungal interactions can be predicted from leaf chemistry and even spectral reflectance data,” says Pierre. “This opens up exciting possibilities for non-invasive monitoring of biotic interactions, ecosystem health using remote sensing, and metabolomic signatures across multispecies experimental design.”

complexity,” he says. “As we move forwards, it’s essential to foster collaboration between biologists, data scientists, and policymakers; only then can we ensure that AI serves both scientific discovery and societal good.”

THE GOAL IS TO BUILD ROBUST, TRANSPARENT TOOLS THAT CAN GUIDE REAL-WORLD DECISIONS

So, what does the future hold for AI in the omics research space? Pierre believes that integrating multiple omics into unified predictive models could be a game changer, if done correctly. “This will require advanced data fusion techniques, scalable and interpretable machine learning algorithms, and FAIR data infrastructures and semantic annotation,” he says. “We also need to address challenges like data labelling, model generalisation, and ethical considerations around AI use in biology.”

“Ultimately, the goal is to build robust, transparent tools that can guide real-world decisions in agriculture, conservation, and beyond,” he says. “These advances not only enable us to pursue more ambitious projects involving large numbers of observations and conditions, but they also promise to reduce analytical costs. This shift could be transformative, helping to democratise omics sciences—especially metabolomics, which remains costly—and making them more accessible to breeders, farmers, and other stakeholders.”

Finally, Pierre is keen to remind people that AI is not only a computational tool for modern problem-solving but may also revolutionize the way that scientists operate from now on. “It’s a catalyst for rethinking how we approach biological

PIPETTES TO PIXELS

Laboratory skills can be learned in many ways, whether that’s through practical workshops, books, or videos; but creativity can capture the mind in ways that other methods simply cannot. Along with a few colleagues, Dr Sarah Rayment, a senior lecturer in molecular sciences and the Centre Director for the Bioscience Scholarship Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), has developed a creative challenge for students that transforms fundamental cell biology lab skills into an artist’s arsenal. “I have a long-standing interest in creativity in biology education as well as practical education,” says Sarah. “As part of my teaching, I work with integrated masters students to create multimedia as part of an assessment. My determination to build creativity into our curriculum was fuelled when one of these students said that science education ‘drums creativity out of you’.”

The idea for these creative lab-based competitions first emerged out of necessity due to teaching restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We created a ‘bioskills kit’ that students could use at home to do experiments and practice their skills,” says Sarah. “We used microscopy competitions to engage students and build some community when they couldn’t be physically together. As students returned to campus, my colleague Jody Winter evolved the bioskills activities to include the pixel art challenge.”

The actual rules of the pixel art challenge are surprisingly simple, which is exactly what enables the students to get so creative. “Pipetting accuracy

and creating serial dilutions are the focus for the pixel art activity,” says Sarah. First, the students create serial dilutions of food dyes and use these as their ‘colour palette’. They then use 96-well plates to create an image with each well acting as one pixel. “We give students a chance to map out their image using a paper image of a 96-well plate if they want to,” says Sarah. “It is a really straightforward process and makes learning these skills a lot more fun.”

On the surface, art challenges may not seem like an obvious link to the development of biology skills, but precision pipetting and setting up serial dilutions are important tricks of the trade for budding biologists, and creative methods can often be the most engaging way to learn. “Given how fundamental these skills are for many areas of biology, the activities can be contextualised for the specific student group and the experience of the academic,” says Sarah. “For example, if showing students how these skills fitted into my career, I would likely talk to them about how they are involved in projects where I have undertaken making genetic libraries, and investigated signal transduction mechanisms and gene expression.”

To test out their workshop, the team at NTU2 recruited life science students at the University of Benin, Nigeria. “This came about as one of my colleagues, Bunmi Omorotionmwan, studied at this university and we realised that with her experience of the resources available at the university, the provision of equipment and expertise would enable undergraduates to develop their skills even if laboratory facilities were limited,” she says. As well as developing key bioscience skills, the team at NTU were keen to capitalise on this opportunity to explore the students’ awareness and understanding of jobs in science. “For this group

ONE OF THESE STUDENTS SAID THAT SCIENCE EDUCATION ‘DRUMS CREATIVITY OUT OF YOU’

of students, careers were focused on public health diagnostics, which can cross multiple disciplines including cell biology, microbiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and histopathology,” says Sarah.

The positive impact of this project on the students taking part has demonstrated the importance of injecting elements of fun and imagination into skills workshops, and also shows just how truly transferable some of these skills can be. “For the students that undertook the sessions, the immediate impact was an increase in their confidence in performing these lab skills,” says Sarah. “Importantly for us, 80% of these students said that they were more likely to consider a career with a practical element, which would have individual benefits, as well as for the country in the longer term.”

Having left the equipment and resources with the staff at the university in Nigeria, Sarah and her team hope that the university staff will be able to continue the practice, and that the impact of this initiative will have a long legacy. “We hope to go back to the university to talk to the staff there about the wider impact of the initiative,” she adds. The future of this project appears to be bright, with Sarah currently in the process of running a similar project in her local community, as well as upskilling school staff to deliver the activity with loanable resources in their own classrooms. Additionally, Sarah is especially keen in expanding this project for one demographic in particular. “I have a longterm interest in women in STEM and would like to focus on supporting women to develop these skills in areas where their opportunities may be more limited,” she says. “I will be looking to work with our international office to find international partners to work with, though would be open to hearing from SEB members too!”

Left Page Top:

Students at the University of Benin participating in the pipetting pixel art challenge.

Photo credit: Sarah Rayment.

Below:

Examples of the pixel art produced by the students.

Photo credit: Sarah Rayment.

I HAVE A LONG-TERM INTEREST IN WOMEN IN STEM AND WOULD LIKE TO FOCUS ON SUPPORTING WOMEN TO DEVELOP THESE SKILLS IN AREAS WHERE THEIR OPPORTUNITIES MAY BE MORE LIMITED

References:

1. FAIR stands for the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability of data.

2. The full team included Dr Sarah Rayment, Dr Bunmi Omorotionmwan, Dr Jody Winter, Dr Karin Garrie, and Jess Fountain.

SENDING PLANTS TO OUTER SPACE

BY CAROLINE WOOD

The world is firmly in the grip of a second space race. Countries across the world are scrambling to exploit extraterrestrial resources, establish permanent footholds on the Moon and Mars, and secure strategic dominance in satellite communications. But outer space remains a hostile, challenging environment, and plant science will play a crucial role if we are to move from fleeting visitors there to longer-term residents. Caroline Wood meets researchers working to help uncover how plants could grow, thrive, and sustain human life beyond Earth.

DUCKWEED: A TINY PLANT WITH BIG

POTENTIAL

“Space travel is the ultimate exercise in selfsufficiency and sustainability: you are stuck with only the things you took,” says Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology Jenny Mortimer (University of Adelaide). “On top of this, you have an extremely challenging environment: harsh radiation, and micro- or altered gravity. But using synthetic biology, we can engineer plants that thrive, not just survive; crops that are compact, more efficient at using carbon and nutrients, and able to produce not just food, but also materials and medicines.”

Professor Mortimer’s research focuses on engineering plant cell metabolism, particularly glycosylation, to develop crops for sustainable industries on Earth, and off it. In recent years, she has applied these skills towards designing plants to support astronauts on long-term space missions as part of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Plants for Space.1 “A key research focus for the Centre is to develop nutritionally complete, zero-waste plants optimized for controlled environments and vertical farming,”2 she says. A particularly promising candidate is a family of aquatic plants, the duckweeds (Lemnaceae), already consumed by various cultures in parts of Southeast Asia, for instance in curries and soups.

“Duckweeds include some of the fastest-growing plants on Earth—capable of doubling their

SPACE TRAVEL IS THE ULTIMATE EXERCISE IN SELFSUFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY: YOU ARE STUCK WITH ONLY THE THINGS YOU TOOK.

biomass in just a couple of days3—and they are tiny, among the smallest flowering plants on the planet,” Professor Mortimer adds. “They are also easy to grow in water and packed with protein, which makes them a very efficient food source. From a synthetic biology perspective, their small size and fast growth make them an exciting proposition for iterative engineering designs. Our projects include improving nutrition (e.g. increasing omega-3 fatty acids) and producing biomaterials (such as bioplastics). However, we first need to develop a synthetic biology toolbox to allow us to iteratively develop an on-demand production platform.”

However, Professor Mortimer is also exploring how to take other plant species to space. She is part of a team selected to develop a plant growth unit for NASA ’s Artemis III mission, which aims to land humans on the Moon in 2027. The Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora (LEAF) payload is designed to germinate and grow three species (Arabidopsis thaliana, duckweed Wolffia spp. , and Brassica rapa) of plants on the lunar surface, while recording and transmitting information about their growth using sensors and cameras. “Excitingly, a set of these plants will be chemically fixed, and then those samples returned to earth for molecular analysis; a first for humanity,” says Professor Mortimer. “However, there are many challenges to overcome first, from ensuring that the plants germinate and grow after their launch, to making sure we have sufficient biomass for all the analyses on the return samples.”

Even if the seeds don’t germinate or survive, that result will still be incredibly valuable, she adds. “It would tell us about the limits of plant biology under long-term spaceflight and lunar conditions, and help refine future designs. In any case, our goal is that this work will inspire breakthroughs in indoor agriculture on Earth, contributing to more resilient and localized food production and biomanufacturing.”

EXCITINGLY, A SET OF PLANTS GROWN ON THE LUNAR SURFACE WILL BE CHEMICALLY FIXED, AND THEN THOSE SAMPLES RETURNED TO EARTH FOR MOLECULAR ANALYSIS; A FIRST FOR HUMANITY.

Top Left: Toe studies. Photo credit: Kin Pan Chung.

Above

Professor Jenny Mortimer standing next to the payload of the MAPHEUS15 campaign rocket in Esrange, Sweden, which flew a Wolffia experiment in collaboration with DLRs Jens Hauslage. Photo credit: Jenny Mortimer.

DECODING PLANT STRESS RESPONSES IN SPACE

But if plants are to ever provide food and other resources for long-duration space missions, it is critical that we better understand the stresses spaceflight imposes on them. However, performing experiments to answer this is challenging: access to spaceflight is rare and researchers typically can’t make as many physical observations as they would on Earth.

One answer, according to Professor Simon Gilroy (University of Wisconsin–Madison), is transcriptomic profiling, where plants grown during spaceflight are frozen, brought back to Earth, and analysed using RNA seq uencing to measure patterns of gene expression. Such studies generate immense amounts of data, but in isolation their usefulness is limited. In the early 2010s, Professor Gilroy and colleagues unified these in the first comparative transcriptomic database for spaceflight: the Test Of Arabidopsis Space Transcriptome (TOAST) database.4

“As spaceflight experiments are rare, combining

insights from as many as possible is imperative to gain the most insight from the data we do have,” Professor Gilroy says. “TOAST was a database that made between-experiment comparisons very easy. Cross-referencing the design factors within an experiment allows similar study designs to be selected, enabling the strongest multiexperiment comparisons as well as figuring out whether one particular element is having a major effect on the results. This kind of integrated analysis adds a lot of value to each rare spaceflight experiment.”

The approach has since been incorporated into the comparison tools built into NASA’s GeneLab data repository, and in data exploration environments.5 Data for these include NASA’s Open Science Data Archive, datasets reported in the literature, and even unpublished data provided freely by “the very sharing and supportive spaceflight community.” The result is rich depositories that enable researchers to mine for core, common biological responses to microgravity that could help inform countermeasures for adverse effects; for instance, improved growth hardware, cultivar selection, or gene editing.

“Because thousands of transcriptomic experiments have been performed on Earth, covering the effects of hundreds of different stresses, we can match patterns of gene expression in spaceflight with known molecular fingerprints of terrestrial responses,” says Professor Gilroy. “In effect, we

can ask what did a plant ‘experience’ in space, e.g. did it behave when growing in space similarly to a plant in a flooded environment on Earth, even though it isn’t actually being flooded in space?”

So far, it is clear that core spaceflight responses in plants include a reaction to oxidative stress and alterations in plant defence systems.6 “Another interesting change we have found during spaceflight is a shift in how the plant cell walls are laid down,” adds Professor Gilroy. “Much like astronauts lose bone and muscle mass as they no longer fight against gravity, the rigid celluloserich walls around plant cells are shifted in the weightless environment.”7–9 These changes could have far-reaching effects, including alterations in how well the plant can fend off pathogens, and how nutritious and digestible space-grown crops would be for astronauts.

“Having these data enables us to identify the critical questions we need to focus on if we are ever to use plants as part of the life-support systems that sustain astronauts,” adds Professor Gilroy. “The next steps will be to use techniques that monitor other plant components, such as metabolites and mineral composition, to build a much richer view of what is happening to plants in space. There is also huge potential for using artificial intelligence to mine these data in very sophisticated ways, such as mapping responses down to individual cell types.”

WE HAVE LEARNT A LOT ABOUT HOW STOMATA IMPACT CROP PERFORMANCE, BUT OFTEN AT SMALLER SCALES—LEAF-LEVEL OR WHOLE PLANT, FOR EXAMPLE—AND TYPICALLY THE TRANSITION FROM TRANSFORMATIONAL TO REAL-WORLD APPLICATIONS IS LACKING,’ SAYS CASPAR.

FROM FISH WASTE TO MARTIAN HARVESTS

Perhaps the most celebrated instance of plant science on screen is when astronaut Matt Damon in The Martian survives being stranded on Mars by growing potatoes using his own faeces as fertilizer. It illustrates a key challenge with cultivating crops on the Moon or Mars: with the surface devoid of organic matter and beneficial microbes, colonists would need to bring their own supplies of nutrients. But for the long-term, ultimately we need selfsustaining systems, and aquaponics could be the solution.

“Aquaponics is based on the principle of sustainability and the circular economy, in other words using waste as an integral part of the production system,” says Professor Benz Kotzen (University of Greenwich). The method combines growing plants with farming fish, which provide the organic nutrients. Fish excrete ammonia, which microbes (naturally present in the water) convert first to nitrite and then to nitrate. “Additional plant nutrients, such as phosphorous and potassium, can be readily

BESIDES PROVIDING FOOD ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, AQUAPONIC SYSTEMS CAN ALSO FACILITATE THE TRANSITION TO GROWING LAND-BASED CROPS

extracted from the fish faeces, which are removed as the water is filtered,” adds Professor Kotzen. “If done using anaerobic digestion, this has the benefit of producing methane gas, which can be used for cooking or heating.”

Leafy greens and salad crops in particular thrive on the nitrate-rich water, providing “a welcome relief from space-food diets” for human astronauts, whilst also filtering and cleaning the water for the fish, which in turn provide a welcome source of protein. Tilapia, a hardy, vegetarian fish, is an ideal candidate because it can survive on plant-based feeds (including algae, soy, and duckweed) that can themselves be cultivated within the system.

“Besides providing food almost immediately, aquaponic systems can also facilitate the transition to growing land-based crops,” says Professor Kotzen. “Any plant offcuts and inedible fish material can be composted and added to the planetary surface, in indoor controlled environmental chambers, to begin the soil-forming process.”

It sounds an elegant solution, but does it work in practice? To find out, Professor Kotzen and his colleagues compared the performance of crops grown either in horticultural soil with water, or in mineral composites simulating the Martian surface with the addition of aquaponic effluents.10 The range of crops tested was selected to provide a nutritious and diverse diet for human colonists: potatoes, tomatoes, dwarf French beans, carrots, lettuce, spring onion, chives, and basil.

Although the crops grown in the control soil generated higher yields, most of the ‘Martian’ crops produced a reasonable harvest. Significantly, in most cases, the plants that were grown with the addition of aquaponic effluents were much greener than those grown in the horticultural soil, indicating that the nutrient supply was more than adequate. “Unlike in soil, where nutrients are gradually depleted, the aquaponic water delivered a steady stream of nitrate with every watering,” says Professor Kotzen. “However, the plants grown in the Martian analogue and simulant soils germinated and developed more slowly. No doubt, this was due to the horticultural soil already containing the nutrients and microbes needed for the seeds to grow, whereas in the Martian soils these needed to be accumulated to sufficient quantities for comparative growth.”

But the benefits of aquaponics systems do not just apply to space missions. “Since aquaponics is very water-efficient, it could make a significant difference in areas affected by climate change and unreliable rainfall, such as Sub-Saharan Africa,” adds Professor Kotzen. And because aquaponic plants can be grown vertically, they could also be a space-efficient strategy to produce more food in urban areas. “There is no reason why we can’t set these systems up in hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, schools, and even prisons.”

of soil/simulant substrates from left to right: left, horticultural soil (organic content); middle, Mars analogue regolith substrate using the Chicago Botanical Gardens mix with materials from the UK; right, Mars regolith simulant derived from minerals from the USA and supplied by the Martian Garden company, which supplies simulants for research purposes.

credit: Benz

AQUAPONICS IS BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY, IN OTHER WORDS USING WASTE AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE PRODUCTION SYSTEM.

Left

Photo

Photo

Kotzen.

Basil plants grown in Mars simulant regolith and without any organic material and fertilizers except for fish water

Photo credit: Benz Kotzen.

MOON-RICE: MINIATURIZING A STAPLE FOR OUTER SPACE

Nevertheless, even with nutrient-rich aquaponic effluents, it would take considerable time to terraform Martian soils so they could sustain land-based staples that would provide the bulk of astronauts’ calories. At the SEB’s 2025 Annual Conference in Antwerp, delegates had the chance to learn about an exciting new project exploring a different approach: highly miniaturized crops suitable for indoor growing.

“An ideal space crop would be compatible with space-efficient indoor vertical farming systems, very productive, and resistant to space stressors, such as high UV light exposure,” says Professor Stefania De Pascale (University of Naples Federico II). She is one of the principal investigators of the Moon-Rice project,11 a collaboration between the Italian Space Agency, the University of Milan, the University of Rome Sapienza, and the University of Naples Federico II. “We have set ourselves the challenge of shrinking rice down to the ‘superdwarf’ level—around 50 centimetres high—while still giving high yields.”

Rice, one of the major sources of calories for humans on Earth, has an attractive nutritional profile; its starch granules are small and easily digestible, it is gluten free, and it provides fibre, proteins, vitamin B, iron, and manganese. Furthermore, it can be readily cultivated using soilless methods, such as hydroponics.

But shrinking it down to the micro level creates challenges, as co-PI Dr Marta Del Bianco (Italian Space Agency) explains: “Dwarf varieties often come from the manipulation of the plant hormone gibberellin, but this can create problems for seed germination and productivity. Tackling this will require a holistic approach combining crop physiology, molecular biology, rice genetics, and space crop production expertise.”

To start with, rice lines carrying genes for the ideal characteristics of a space crop will be selected from a collection of CRISPR -Cas9 rice mutants. “These lines will be characterized for their agronomic traits, both in controlled environments on Earth and under simulated space conditions, including adaptability to hydroponic growth, stress resistance, yield, grain quality, waste biomass production, and metabolomic/nutritional seed profiles,” says Professor Vittoria Brambilla (University of Milan). “For instance, since meat production will be too inefficient for space habitats, we are investigating how to enrich the protein content by increasing the ratio of protein-rich embryo to starch.” Targeted genetic improvements will also be applied to modify crop architecture and physiology, including to increase the number of culms, enhance the number and size of productive panicles, shorten the crop cycle, and optimize yield and adaptability to space conditions.

Rice plants with different forms of dwarfism that the Moon-Rice project is investigating. Photo credit: Greta Bertegnon.

The candidate lines will then be tested under simulated space conditions, and subsequently in real space environments, to determine whether their agronomic characteristics are maintained in such a unique context. A particular concern is how the rice plants will cope with microgravity. “The perception of gravity in the root tips and nodes of the stem is critical for plant growth and architecture,” says Dr Bianco. “Since doing real microgravity experiments in space is expensive and impractical, we simulate microgravity on Earth by continually rotating the plant so that the plant is pulled equally in all directions by gravity.”

Even if the Moon-Rice project does not ultimately succeed in developing a rice variety that meets all the ideal criteria, the research team are confident that the project will deliver invaluable new knowledge, both for space cultivation and for developing more resilient crops on Earth. “Expanding our knowledge of plant cultivation

WE HAVE SET OURSELVES THE CHALLENGE OF SHRINKING RICE DOWN TO THE ‘SUPER-DWARF’ LEVEL— AROUND 50 CENTIMETRES HIGH—WHILE STILL GIVING HIGH YIELDS.

Left:

Rice cultivar characterization under controlled environmental conditions at the Crop Research for Space Laboratory, Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II.

Photo credit: Antonio Pannico.

in extreme environments will help address the global need for food, especially in inhospitable regions of Earth,” says Professor Raffaele Dello Ioio (Sapienza University of Rome). “A crop robust enough for space environments could also be suitable for the Arctic and Antarctic poles, in deserts, or in places with limited indoor space.”

As these examples show that successfully sending plants into outer space will require innovation across all areas of plant science. It certainly is an exciting time to be an experimental biologist!

References:

1. https://plants4space.com/

2. Gill AR, Miller TK, Wijeweera S, et al. 2025. Turbocharging fundamental science translation through controlled environment agriculture. Trends in Plant Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2025.08.014.

3. Ofoedu CE, Bozkurt H, Mortimer, JC 2025. Towards sustainable food security: exploring the potential of duckweed (Lemnaceae) in diversifying food systems. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 161, 105073. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tifs.2025.105073

4. Barker R, Lombardino J, Rasmussen K, et al. 2020. Test of Arabidopsis space transcriptome: a discovery environment to explore multiple plant biology spaceflight experiments. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11, 147. https://doi. org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00147

5. Barker R, Kruse CPS, Johnson C, et al. 2023. Meta-analysis of the space flight and microgravity response of the Arabidopsis plant transcriptome. NPJ Microgravity, 9(1), 21. https://doi. org/10.1038/s41526-023-00247-6

6. Manzano A, Carnero-Diaz E, Herranz R, et al. 2022. Recent transcriptomic studies to elucidate the plant adaptive response to spaceflight and to simulated space environments. iScience, 25(8), 104687. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104687

7. Johnson CM, Subramanian A, Pattathil S, et al. 2017. Comparative transcriptomics indicate changes in cell wall organization and stress response in seedlings during spaceflight. American Journal of Botany, 104(8), 1219–1231. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.1700079

8. Nakashima J, Pattathil S, Avci U, et al. 2023. Glycome profiling and immunohistochemistry uncover changes in cell walls of Arabidopsis thaliana roots during spaceflight. NPJ Microgravity, 9(1), 68. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-02300312-0

9. Diao X, Haveman N, Califar B, et al. 2024. Spaceflight impacts xyloglucan oligosaccharide abundance in Arabidopsis thaliana root cell walls. Life Sciences in Space Research, 41, 110–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lssr.2024.02.004

10. Kotzen B, Paradelo Perez M, Fruscella L 2024. Feeding Mars: a pilot study growing vegetables using aquaponic effluent fertiliser in simulant and analogue Martian regoliths. Ecocycles, 10(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.19040/ ecocycles.v10i1.391

11. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1089839

ECO MITO SYMPOSIUM

19 - 20 FEBRUARY 2026

MOB HOTEL, LYON, FRANCE

SEBIOLOGY.ORG #SEBECOMITO

ECOMITO: BRIDGING CELLULAR PERFORMANCE TO ECOPHYSIOLOGY

SYNOPSIS:

This symposium is dedicated to the exploration of bioenergetics across different biological scales, from the intricacies of mitochondrial processes to the broader scope of wholeorganism performance, and from cellular mechanisms to ecosystem dynamics. It will serve as a platform for discussing how energy metabolism drives adaptation in response to environmental changes, with a particular emphasis on the particular ecological context.

ORGANISED BY:

• Dr. Elisa Thoral (La Rochelle University)

• Dr Loïc Teulier (Claude Bernard University LYON 1)

• Dr. Enrique Rodriguez (University College London)

• Dr Jules Devaux (University of Auckland)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

• Lucie Gerber (University of Oslo)

• Damien Roussel (University Claude Bernard of Lyon)

• Jim Staples (Western University)

PLANT ENGINEERING: ADVANCES, BOTTLENECKS, AND PROMISE JOURNALS

BY FEDERICA BRANDIZZI, JENNY MORTIMER, AND KATHERINE DENBY

Ptransformed our ability to study gene function and improve crop performance, enabling innovations in agriculture, synthetic biology, and biotechnology. Advances in plant transformation technologies have made it possible to introduce precise genetic modifications that enhance plant growth, stress tolerance, biosynthetic pathways, and reproductive strategies. However, the efficiency, scalability, and genotype flexibility of transformation techniques still limit the broad application of gene editing and synthetic biology tools, both in model species and in agriculturally important crops. A special issue of The Plant Journal, published earlier this year (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/ (ISSN)1365-313X.plant-engineering-advances), brought together a diverse collection of articles that explore the state of plant transformation technologies, strategies for overcoming current bottlenecks, and emerging opportunities in gene

engineering approaches, all with a view to plant engineering contributing to global challenges, such as sustainable food production and a thriving bioeconomy.

One of the most critical aspects of plant engineering is the development of efficient and genotype-independent transformation systems. Tissue culture-free or minimal tissue culture transformation systems have the potential to revolutionize plant biotechnology, overcoming the time and labour required for tissue culture. These include in planta transformation methods from a variety of tissues, and the use of morphogenic regulators and small peptides can further enhance plant regenerative potential. Although Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has been the gold standard for delivering genetic material into plant cells, many crops and elite genotypes remain recalcitrant to Agrobacterium

infection, limiting its utility. An alternative approach to in planta transformation is the engineering of Agrobacterium to improve plant transformation and enhance Agrobacterium’s ability to infect a broader range of plant species.

Genetic transformation is not the only way to engineer plants. The engineering of synthetic apomixis (enabling clonal seed production) could revolutionize crop breeding by preserving hybrid vigour across generations. Grafting also has a modern application, with mobile RNAs, graft hybrids, and graft chimeras being used to engineer plant development, stress tolerance, and hybrid traits without the need for direct DNA modification.

A key challenge to complex plant engineering (e.g. metabolic and regulatory pathways) is the size of DNA that can be effectively integrated into the genome at precise sites. Methods to do this include homologous recombination-based approaches, with programmable recombinases showing high potential. Alternatively, the creation of artificial chromosomes in planta enables

housing of large segments of foreign DNA without disrupting native gene function, and potentially enabling transferability between cultivars and species.

Beyond transformation, articles in the special issue explore synthetic biology and genome engineering approaches that push the boundaries of plant biotechnology. Efficient engineering of plants to produce specialized metabolites, or for complex regulatory pathway rewiring, requires design skills and the application of engineering techniques. Design can be supported by deep learning and/or mathematical modelling to drive precise spatio-temporal regulation of endogenous or transgene pathways.

PlantGENE (https://plantgene.sivb.org/ ) is a network designed to help realize the potential of plant engineering. PlantGENE facilitates knowledge exchange, offering both in-person and virtual training, and is building a global community. With over 1,000 members from 58 countries, this is a skilled and enthusiastic scientific network!

PLANTGENE IS A NETWORK DESIGNED TO HELP REALIZE THE POTENTIAL OF PLANT ENGINEERING

CANNABIS CULTIVATION: SCIENTIFIC ADVICE TO REACH NEW HIGHS

BY MAREIKE JEZEK

JXB (Journal of Experimental Botany)

Ricarda Jost, Oliver Berkowitz, Amelia Pegg, Bhavna Hurgobin, Muluneh Tamiru-Oli, Matthew T Welling, Myrna A Deseo, Hannah Noorda, Filippa Brugliera, Mathew G Lewsey, Monika S Doblin, Antony Bacic, James Whelan. 2025. Sink strength, nutrient allocation, cannabinoid yield, and associated transcript profiles vary in two drug-type Cannabis chemovars, Journal of Experimental Botany 76, 152–174, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae367

Few plants have been in the public eye and divided minds like cannabis - hailed, on the one hand, as a relaxing treat to boost creativity and take the edge off the daily grind, but stigmatized, on the other hand, as a dangerous, addictive gateway drug. Historically, strict drug policies have placed cannabis in the same category as heroin and LSD in many countries, and the illegal status of the plant has severely limited its research. Obtaining permits and funding to cultivate and investigate cannabis has long been a challenging endeavour for researchers. The first scientist to chemically isolate tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from cannabis even relied on the police for their supply of plant material (Gaoni and Mechoulam, 1964). However,

THANKS TO THE NEWLY FORMED INTEREST AS A MEDICINAL PLANT, CANNABIS IS OUTGROWING ITS IMAGE AS A LIFESTYLE DRUG OF THE HIPPIE GENERATION

the acceptance of cannabis has been rising both socially and politically in recent times, and many countries are easing restrictions on its use for medical or recreational purposes. This makes cannabis research easier and required more than ever.

Cannabis has been cultivated for thousands of years, and selective domestication has yielded two distinct forms: tall-growing hemp varieties, whose bast fibers and hurds are used to produce ropes, textiles, or building materials, and drug varieties with a high flower-to-leaf ratio and high levels of the phytocannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), which can be converted into the psychoactive drug THC (Fig. 1) (Clarke and Merlin, 2016), for medical or mind-altering purposes. The predominant phytocannabinoid in hemp is cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), which gives rise to the non-intoxicating cannabidiol (CBD) (Fig. 1). CBD has been clinically proven to be effective in treating seizures in certain types of epilepsy (Franco and Perucca, 2019) and can also be found in wellness products such as soft drinks, chewing gums, and bathing salts. Due to an increased demand for CBD by the pharmaceutical and wellness industries, breeders aim to develop cannabis varieties with economically desirable traits, such as a compact plant build optimised for growth in controlled environments, high flower biomass and CBDA yield, and low levels of THCA. This has been achieved by introgressing genes from hemp into a drug-type genetic background, yielding

new cannabis types (chemovars) whose unique combinations of phenotypic traits and underlying genetic makeup require detailed investigation to optimise growth and CBDA production, and for further selection of desired genotypes (Wee et al., 2024)

Jost et al. (2024) compared the performance of a THC-dominant with a CBD-dominant drug-type cannabis chemovar in a controlled environment setting that is typical for cultivation of medicinal plants. Their work revealed surprising differences that will affect breeding and cultivation of cannabis for commercial CBD production. The THC-dominant variety showed expected good performance with high inflorescence biomass and cannabinoid yield, with its stunted growth phenotype being well suited for indoor cultivation. The CBD-dominant chemovar, however, retained several features of its hemp parent, such as profuse vegetative growth and low flower production, which resulted in a decreased cannabinoid yield compared to the THC-dominant variety. Also, hemp is very efficient in nutrient uptake as it is well-adapted to growth on marginal soil that is poor in the main plant nutrients nitrogen and phosphate. The CBD-dominant chemovar seems to have retained this high nutrient uptake capacity which became detrimental to plant performance when grown with ample nutrient input as is common for the cultivation of drug-type cannabis. These plants showed a poor ability to sense and regulate the uptake of nutrients, especially phosphate, leading to its hyperaccumulation in

leaves to toxic levels with adverse downstream effects such as low photosynthetic activity and early leaf senescence. Jost et al. (2024) found a number of genes involved in phosphate and nitrogen homeostasis that w ere differently expressed between the CBD- and the THCdominant chemovars and which may contribute to the altered nutrient sensing, acquisition, or distribution of the former. Understanding the distinct nutritional requirements of different cannabis varieties and the underlying genetic regulation is an important step towards selective breeding of new drug-type varieties and improved performance. The findings also open up opportunities for the development of new sustainable cultivation strategies for chemovars with reduced nutrient input to optimise plant growth and cannabinoid yield.

Thanks to the newly formed interest as a medicinal plant, cannabis is outgrowing its image as a lifestyle drug of the hippie generation. With the change in cultural values and political restrictions comes the need for large-scale commercial cultivation. The work presented by Jost et al. (2024) highlights that further fine-tuning of cannabis genotypes and cultivation conditions is required to optimise performance and yields. Furthermore, the domestication history of cannabis leading to phenotypically diverse hemp- and drug-types provides an interesting model to investigate how trait selection has shaped its genetics and vice versa.

CBD HAS BEEN CLINICALLY PROVEN TO BE EFFECTIVE IN TREATING SEIZURES IN CERTAIN TYPES OF EPILEPSY (FRANCO AND PERUCCA, 2019) AND CAN ALSO BE FOUND IN WELLNESS PRODUCTS SUCH AS SOFT DRINKS, CHEWING GUMS, AND BATHING SALTS

(image

Figure 1: Terminal female inflorescence of a drug-type cannabis chemovar close to maturity and chemical structures of the major cannabinoids tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (left) and cannabidiol (CBD) (right)

courtesy of R. Jost and co-authors).

SEB MEMBERSHIP

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SEBIOLOGY.ORG #SEBPACK

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DO MORE APPLY FOR GRANTS AND SPONSORSHIP TO INCREASE YOUR OPPORTUNITIES

FAST TRACK YOUR CAREER ACCESS JOURNALS, EDUCATION AND TRAINING SUPPORT

“My motto has always been ‘work hard and play hard’,”

says Dr Katherine Denby, professor of sustainable crop production at the University of York and Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Journal, in a discussion with Alex Evans about plants, publishing, and the importance of taking a break.

ALEX EVANS, IN CONVERSATION WITH...

KATHERINE DENBY

Hi Katherine, where did your interest in plant immunology come from?

I started off doing a microbiology degree and decided to go into plants because when it came to final-year research projects, I didn’t fancy any of the medical projects that dealt with unappealing tissues and samples. However, there was a professor in the biology department, John Beringer, who was doing research on nitrogen-fixing bacteria in nodules in plants and so I thought that sounded a lot more appealing, and that’s what started my plant science journey. In my PhD, I started working on gene regulation and that’s been a real thread throughout my career. When I went to my postdoc in the USA, I began working on changes in gene expression after pathogen infection and followed this up with a move to South Africa, where diseases caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea were important in the soft fruit industry in the Western Cape. I later moved to Warwick Systems Biology Centre, and that’s where I worked with mathematicians, who were able to use the largescale data that we were generating in modelling, to make predictions about gene expression in plant defence responses that we could experimentally test. I’m now at the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products at the University of York, and much of my work is on plant–pathogen interactions and plant disease resistance, and trying to understand how the defence response is regulated. I want to use that understanding to boost the defence response in horticultural crops like lettuce.

What are the real-world consequences of these pathogens, and what are we doing to prevent them?

Fungal pathogens are a major economic problem. The dangerous thing about the pathogens that we work on, Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, is that they have very broad host ranges, so they can infect a lot of different fruits and vegetables as well as ornamental flowers. The current controls are mostly chemical, which cause problems in terms of environmental pollution, but we’re also seeing increasing resistance against these

chemicals in the field. What we’re hoping to do is try and boost the plant’s endogenous resistance against these pathogens to reduce the number of chemical applications and post-harvest disease. We’re trying to engineer plants to be more resistant just by using the components they’ve already got, but rewiring them to enhance the outcome. We’re working in lettuce, but the idea is that we can identify a core network that we can apply across many different crops.

Sounds like a real mix of techniques in play there. How much of your research is lab-based and how much is field-based?

We do both! Our modelling strategy is based on a lot of transcriptome data and is lab-based, and for that transcriptome data we have used lab-grown material under controlled conditions to minimize the variation that we see. So yes, a lot of the work is lab-based, particularly at the moment because we’re trying to make our network models accurate with experimental data, but we have always made sure that we link it back to field trials. I collaborated with the University of Warwick, which has got great field trial expertise and facilities, and we also work closely with Tozer Seeds, a family breeding company in the UK, who have the ability to test lines in the field or glasshouse.

On a more personal note, which moments from your career have stood out to you the most?

I think for me, one of the highlights is our Amaranthus project, because you can see real impact happening. Amaranthus is a genus of traditional leafy vegetables in Southern Africa, but often in South Africa, it’s harvested from the wild rather than cultivated and hasn’t been fully domesticated. We’re working to breed improved lines that smallholders can cultivate with reliable yield under low-input agricultural conditions. We work with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in South Africa who have an amaranth breeding programme, and we bring the genomic data to speed up the process. The ARC also run farmer

Photo credit: Katherine Denby

trials. I’ve visited the farmers and it’s fantastic because they’re really engaged with the project. They’re giving us feedback on how easy lines are to harvest, how easy to cook, what they taste like… which are really important aspects of developing lines that will be taken up by farmers.

As well as active research, you are also the Editor-in-Chief for The Plant Journal. What responsibilities does a role like that involve?

Yes, I became Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Journal in January 2024, which is a mixture of strategic decision-making working with the editorial board and the logistics of publishing over 500 papers a year. We have an annual board meeting where we bring all the editors together, which is always really valuable, and we think about the vision for the journal, what type of articles do we want to publish, and what are our standards for publication quality (for example, last year, we decided that all large-scale datasets have to be publicly available). We also sponsor conferences and awards to help raise the profile of The Plant Journal, but also to support the research community. At the moment, we sponsor a summer internship through the Black in Plant Science Network in the UK. The other part of the role is handling all the papers and processes associated with publishing. We have 40 editors from around the world with different expertise, so we need to decide which paper goes to which editor, deal with their workloads, handle author queries, and so on.

So, what are some of the hot topic issues in plant research right now?

We just published a special issue in April this year all about plant engineering. It contains a breadth of reviews on transformation technologies in diverse plant species and new opportunities in gene editing and plant engineering via synthetic biology. For example, how do you transform plants with large multigene constructs? How do you make complicated edits? How do you design a synthetic circuit? I think that this is very topical and appealing to people at the moment, and we always try to make our special issues useful to a wide number of people in the field.

Leaving research and publishing to one side for a moment, what else do you enjoy doing?

I enjoy hiking and do a lot of hiking at the weekends to help clear my head as well as have the space to think about new ideas. I’m living in York, so I’m spoilt for choice for places to hike, but I recently did the Cleveland Way, around the edge of the North York moors and down the coast. It’s hard to get anything better than that in terms of variety of landscapes. Every year I make sure that I can go away for a few days for a long hike on my own; taking holidays is very important to me! My motto has always been ‘work hard and play hard’, so I make sure that there’s always time to have a break and focus on other things.

Is there anything else that you’d like to tell the SEB membership?

Yes, I’d like to encourage researchers, particularly early career researchers, to think about publishing in society-owned journals. There are many journals in the field that are society owned, for example, The Plant Journal is co-owned by the SEB, which provides support for scientists through travel grants and international meetings, and similarly the American Society of Plant Biology has their own journals. It’s something that provides benefits back to everyone in science, so think about it when deciding where to send your manuscripts!

Thank you, Katherine!

I’M SPOILT FOR CHOICE FOR PLACES TO HIKE

with varying susceptibility to Sclerotinia scleotiorum

Photo credit: Katherine Denby

Below: Katherine having fun in the lab with Salman Alsaffar, Katherine Wheeler, Fabian Vaistij, and Maria Pattichis

Photo credit: Katherine Denby

FUNGAL PATHOGENS ARE A MAJOR ECONOMIC PROBLEM

Left: Lettuce

“I still get a buzz every time I retrieve a data logger from an animal,” says Professor Andrea Fuller, Head of the Wildlife Conservation Physiology Lab at the University of the Witwatersrand and Editorin-Chief of Conservation Physiology, in a conversation about climate change, animal adaptation, and the rewards of field research.

CAROLINE WODD, IN CONVERSATION WITH...

ANDREA FULLER

Hello Andrea! How would you introduce yourself and your work?

I am Professor of Physiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Editor-inChief of Conservation Physiology. My group is called the Wildlife Conservation Physiology lab, as this encompasses the two main areas of my research. The first is to understand how freeliving mammals will respond to climate change, including increasing heat loads, phenological changes, disruptions in food availability, increasing disease, and other changes in the environment. If we can better understand their capacity to adapt, we can make more-informed predictions and conservation interventions.

My second major focus is collaborating with vets and wildlife rangers to better understand the physiological responses of animals to conservation management procedures, such as translocating or dehorning. These interventions can cause incredibly severe physiological changes; lions, for instance, become very hypertensive when darted.1 So, we are looking for ways to improve these interventions to reduce the pathophysiological responses in these animals.

Have you always been interested in science?

I grew up on a smallholding just outside Johannesburg in South Africa. My mum ran a dog kennels and cattery facility on our property, and I would spend my free time helping her out. I originally hoped to become a vet, but gave that up after I did work experience at a local practice and fainted when observing a surgical procedure, which is ironic when I consider how many animal surgeries I have done since for my research!

How did you become interested in physiology?

Because I was good at maths, I was encouraged to study actuarial science at the University of the Witwatersrand. I had a scholarship from a big insurance company and a job lined up

there after I graduated. I could even see their headquarters from the university campus… but every time I looked at it, I couldn’t imagine having to work there, sitting at a desk all day long and working only with numbers. So, after 1 year, I decided I would become an exercise physiologist and restarted my studies, majoring in physiology and zoology.

After graduating, I started a PhD investigating thermal limits to exercise performance. But then my supervisor, a medical doctor, relocated to the USA and I could no longer take the measurements I needed in human subjects. So, I pivoted to working on animals. My PhD focus became brain temperature regulation in mammals, with my first project on eland, the largest species of antelope and renowned for surviving in really hot, dry environments. Instead of watching beautifully sculptured human athletes running on treadmills, I went to northern Namibia to measure brain and blood temperatures in these massive animals.

What has been a highlight from your career so far?

When I started my PhD, it was thought that animals that are capable of selectively cooling their brain do so to protect it from thermal damage. Such animals have a structure called the carotid rete; this is present in antelope and cats, for instance, but not primates. This finding gave rise to the argument that one of the reasons why animals such as the eland can survive in extremely hot environments is because they actively protect their brain from thermal damage.

But from my PhD work, and subsequent studies done by my students, we discovered that the entire story was wrong. Selective brain cooling is actually not used to protect the brain from thermal damage, but used instead to conserve body water.2 For example, if the temperature of the hypothalamus increases, this causes an animal to sweat or pant and lose water. But if the hypothalamus is selectively cooled, this signals that the animal is not excessively hot, reducing the water lost through evaporation.

Below:

Professor Andrea Fuller.

How do you do these studies?

My approach has always been to study wild animals; laboratory experiments are useful, but they cannot fully replicate ecosystem interactions and the various environmental stressors that impact behaviour and physiology. So, we go out into the field and dart wild animals, anaesthetize them, and surgically implant probes to measure temperatures at various body sites, as well as other physiological and behavioural variables. When I started my PhD, bio-loggers had only just been invented and were massive, but our group has subsequently helped develop much smaller versions, better suited for measuring internal body temperatures.

How are you involved with the SEB?

My main involvement with the SEB is through the journal Conservation Physiology (owned by SEB and Oxford University Press). I joined the board as an Associate Editor in 2016, and then in 2023 was invited to become Editor-in-Chief from July 2024, a role I take very seriously. It is a community-led journal that fills an important niche by bringing together conservation physiologists and helping to shape this relatively new discipline. Over my next few years as editor, I am keen to grow the journal further, advocate for the profession, and provide more support for this research field, particularly for early career researchers.

What are the best and worst aspects of your research life?

The worst part is the time and resources I spend wading through bureaucracy; for instance, permits for field studies and having to justify buying any piece of equipment. Funding is also a struggle at times; in South Africa, as in the Global South in general, research budgets tend to be on a much smaller scale. I have also been a victim of

‘helicopter science’, where people visit my lab to use our expertise and resources, but we then don’t get access to the data or have much say in subsequent publications.

But I absolutely love that I am constantly learning and discovering new things for the first time. I still get a buzz every time I retrieve a data logger from an animal and download the information. My young students also give me a lot of energy, and I find it particularly fulfilling to give students from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to carry out research. I have taken students from incredibly poor communities to game reserves for the first time in their life, and seeing their reaction and appreciation is immensely rewarding.

I LOVE THAT I AM CONSTANTLY LEARNING AND DISCOVERING NEW THINGS FOR THE FIRST TIME. I STILL GET A BUZZ EVERY TIME I RETRIEVE A DATA LOGGER FROM AN ANIMAL AND DOWNLOAD THE INFORMATION.

What advice would you give to early career researchers/people interested in your field?

I would love to be like Richard Feynman, and tell people to just find what they are really interested in and pursue it. But that isn’t always easy, especially if you come from a poor background without considerable resources. So, I actually think that the most important thing for any young person is to find a good team and mentor who can help you grow and support you when things go wrong. What I’ve learnt over the years is that really good teams have members who are willing to give

Left: Andrea and meerkat (landscape and portrait): Andrea Fuller in the Kalahari observing meerkat behaviour for research on how small diurnal mammals cope with climate change.

Photo credit: Chanel Rampartab.

JEROEN AELES SPOTLIGHT ON...

BY ALEX EVANS

“When you work abroad, you find that there are always different cultures in the lab and the country that you’re living in. All those things evolve you as a person, and that’s always been extremely valuable to me.” Alex

Evans talks with Jeroen Aeles, Assistant Professor of Biomechanics at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (University of Brussels), to learn more about his life inside and outside of the lab.

As a biomechanist, Jeroen is no stranger to how the body works, but his interest in the mechanics of movement didn’t come directly from an interest in science but from an early love of sport. “I was playing tennis at the time at a competitive level, and I wanted to work with elite athletes, perhaps as a strength and conditioning coach,” he says. “However, I lost interest in the coaching side and got really interested in the science. That’s when I took on a second degree that was more focused on biomedical research and haven’t looked back since.”

Jeroen started his research career with a PhD in human movement biomechanics at KU Leuven in Belgium, before embarking on a series of international postdocs that took him to the University of Queensland in Australia, Nantes University in France, Penn State University in the USA, and most recently the University of Antwerp in Belgium. With each new venture, Jeroen’s skills and knowledge in biomechanics have developed in exciting directions. “I was learning completely new techniques in entirely new domains, which was a little bit daunting at the beginning but really helped me to establish my career,” he explains.

In more recent years, Jeroen has established his own lab at the University of Brussels focused on producing high-quality research across the diverse field of biomechanics. While Jeroen’s work is primarily focused on humans, he also explores comparative biomechanics with nonhuman species through an affiliation at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. “It’s been a great opportunity, but a bit of a challenge as well,” he explains. “It’s really nice that this allows me to bridge the gap between those two fields.” Perhaps surprisingly, instead of mammals that appear more relatable to human research, birds have largely been the subject of his animal research. As he explains it, the leg muscles and tendons of ground-dwelling birds are remarkably similar to those of humans due to their bipedal locomotion. “We study the calf muscle of fowl quite a lot as it’s almost identical to our own muscle,” he explains. “I think it’s a

great model for studying some of the more invasive things that we can’t actually study directly in humans.”

Jeroen is interested in exploring all aspects of muscle biomechanics, and his work often investigates muscles right from the contraction of individual fibres up to their impact on whole-organism movement, and everything in between. This frequently involves a wide range of imaging techniques to measure and interpret what is happening to muscles and tendons inside the body. “In humans, we use ultrasound almost for everything that we do, because we can nicely see the muscle fascicles and it is great for dynamic imaging,” he explains. “In animals, we use mostly x-ray imaging and CT imaging in situ, which I find to be very valuable too.”

WE CAN GET A LOT OF VALUABLE INFORMATION FROM MUSCLE SHAPE

=Jeroen picked out one particular highlight of his career as being the time he spent at the University of Queensland, Australia, where he had just started a postdoctoral position under the supervision of neurophysiologists Andy Cresswell and Luke Kelly. This marked a departure from fundamental muscle mechanics, which would present Jeroen with a mixture of challenges and opportunities. “I remember my first meeting with them where they were explaining what they wanted me to work on during the postdoc, and I think I understood maybe five words in that first meeting,” he says. “I got so excited just by their own excitement, but I had no idea what they were talking about. So, I really had to study the textbooks and had to go back to the basics.”

Despite being more versed in the world of muscle mechanics than neurophysiology, it wasn’t long

Above:

Amanda Wiesenthal collecting snails in the lake ‘Schmaler Luzin’, Germany.

Photo credit: Katrin Harder

before Jeroen started to connect the dots between the two fields and reap the benefits of crossdisciplinary learning. “The more I was reading into it, the more I realized how closely linked to the mechanical side the neurophysiological side was,” he says. “Muscles don’t do anything if there’s no neural control, and I had no idea how much I had needed this knowledge. It’s really allowed me to approach things from different perspectives.”

One of Jeroen’s most recent interests is the mysterious role that shape can play in the function of muscles. “I think we can get a lot of valuable information from muscle shape, but it’s been completely overlooked,” he says. “We tend to typically reduce everything to a simple 2D model, so I think the 3D aspect of muscle contraction is really interesting.” During our talk, Jeroen showed me a 3D-printed human calf muscle from one of his research subjects and explained why he finds it so fascinating. “These shapes are so complex and there is so much variation between individuals that seems to deviate from the typical cylindrical shape, so surely there’s got to be a functional reason,” he says.

A constant theme that runs throughout Jeroen’s career so far has been his admiration for the colleagues that he has worked with all over the world. “My PhD and all my postdocs have been with brilliant people, and just learning from those people has been a huge highlight,” he says. “Everyone is doing great science, but what I’ve always appreciated in every single one of my mentors was how great they were with people in the lab.” The importance placed on a healthy work–life balance and positive lab atmosphere

by Jeroen’s peers has helped him to foster the same sense of camaraderie in a research lab of his own. “This is really what inspired me to start my own group and keep that energy going,” he says. “I can be solving new questions with my team, and they get the same excitement because they want to learn new techniques and try different things, and that’s pretty cool to me.”

When he’s not in the lab, Jeroen enjoys a wide range of pursuits and finds time to enjoy activities that stimulate both his physical and mental interests. “Like I said, I was always really into sports; I play tennis, I played soccer, I play basketball, I was surfing in Australia, a lot of skiing, snowboarding, you know, everything sporty,” he says. “But on the other side, I’m a complete nerd. I’m really into board games, video games, I read a lot of fantasy books, and I’m a music addict, especially punk rock.”

The 2025 Annual Conference in Antwerp was Jeroen’s first time attending an SEB Conference, and he is happy to report having a positive experience. “It’s been so brilliant. It’s a great society, and the community is really great too,” he says. “I think the SEB is doing a fantastic job in engaging with early career researchers.” And when it comes to advice for such aspiring researchers, Jeroen strongly recommends venturing out and exploring opportunities as far afield as possible.

“For me at least, when I got to work in different labs… it really opened my eyes,” he says. “I saw how they would do things completely differently, and then I could combine everything I had learned to think more critically about my research.”

LEARNING FROM THOSE PEOPLE HAS BEEN A HUGE HIGHLIGHT

Above: Jeroen and the Functional Morphology Group (University of Antwerp) at the 2025 Annual Conference.

Photo credit: Jeroen Aeles

Left: Jeroen in his lab (Brussels Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab) performing ultrasound imaging, EMG , and surface electrical nerve stimulations.

Photo credit: Jeroen Aeles

“As a child, I was definitely afraid of scorpions. So, it can be hard to believe sometimes that I now spend a lot of time actively seeking them out.”

ZINEB AGOURRAM SPOTLIGHT ON...

BY CAROLINE WOOD

o says Zineb Agourram, a PhD student and toxicology researcher at Faculty of Sciences Ben M’Sik Casablanca, Morocco; a perfect base, as she puts it, for her chosen field. “Besides 32 venomous scorpions and many poisonous snakes, Morocco also has numerous spiders and fish that produce deadly toxins,” she says. “The venoms these animals produce harbour a treasure trove of biologically active compounds with applications in both traditional medicine and modern pharmaceutical research, including antimicrobial treatments, drug development, and eco-friendly insecticides. A better understanding of animal venoms could thus pave the way for significant advancements in human health.”

on how climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, and diet affect venom production in four common Moroccan scorpion species,”1 she says. Her results demonstrated that humidity and nutrition have a significant influence on venom yields. “Specifically, higher humidity levels (50–80%) were associated with increased venom production, likely because they reduce physiological stress and dehydration, while low humidity (30–50%) led to diminished yields. Similarly, scorpions with access to a protein-rich and consistent diet produced greater quantities of venom compared with underfed individuals.”

Under the supervision of Professor Kettani Anass (Vice-President of Hassan II University of Casablanca) and Dr Mouad Mkamel (Hassan II University of Casablanca), her PhD project aims to achieve precisely this. Specifically, her goal is to lay the foundations of an entire comparative genomic analysis of each of these species, effectively a ‘toxicology address book’ for the whole of Morocco. “It is an enormous task, and I will no doubt have to hand on the baton to others. But once this resource is complete, it will enable researchers to identify patterns of toxin gene evolution, explore interspecies variability in venom composition, and uncover potential molecular targets for drug discovery. It will also provide a platform for developing innovative antivenom strategies tailored to Moroccan species, while contributing to global databases on venom genomics.”

Despite being an ambitious undertaking, the project clearly plays to Zineb’s strengths in genomic data analysis. “Ever since I was a child, I have been driven by a passion for unravelling the secrets of life at the molecular level. So, when I discovered genomics at high school, I realized I had found the perfect way to combine my loves of biology, data analysis, and problem solving.”

This led to Zineb studying a master’s degree in Genomics and Bioinformatics at the Faculty of Sciences de Rabat in Morocco. It was her finalyear project that first brought her into close contact with the poisonous animals she had previously avoided. “My master’s research focused

According to Zineb, these findings also carry broader implications: they suggest that climate change—through shifts in temperature and relative humidity—may directly affect venom variability in scorpions and potentially in other venomous animals. “For example, prolonged droughts or heatwaves could reduce venom yields, impacting predator–prey dynamics and the effectiveness of venom collection for antivenom production. Conversely, altered climatic conditions might drive adaptive changes in toxin expression, influencing both ecological interactions and public health risks in regions where venomous species are common.”

For her current project, Zineb believes that diving deep at the genomics level will open up entire new areas of research into these fascinating animals. “For instance, spider venoms contain promising candidate proteins to tackle antibiotic resistant bacteria,” she says. “We have carried out preliminary studies to test the affinity of spider venom peptides for the quorum sensing receptor in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, a multidrugresistant bacterium.”2 The results revealed a strong binding affinity between three peptides and the receptor, suggesting these proteins could inhibit the ability of these bacteria to form biofilms. “Ultimately, our genomic library could enable us to search for related proteins in other species with similarly beneficial properties.”

However, curating this genomic library naturally requires collecting a considerable number of samples. “The first time I went into the field to catch scorpions was both exciting and slightly daunting, as I had no prior experience handling venomous animals in their natural environment,”

Above:

Zineb Agourram

says Zineb. Despite her initial apprehension, Zineb quickly realized how fascinating and rewarding the process could be. “With training, for instance, learning how to manipulate the scorpion’s sting using pliers, I gained confidence. Some of the scorpion species are not so highly venomous, so I started with those before moving on to more dangerous species. Beyond the scientific challenge, my fieldwork experiences have helped me develop essential skills in patience, observation, and careful handling, all of which are indispensable when collecting biological material for genomic studies.”

Although Zineb says she “has only just got started”, her initial studies have already yielded interesting results. “So far, I have found that Moroccan scorpions fall into two distinct ecological groups based on their mitochondrial DNA: desert species such as Androctonus and Buthus, and forestdwelling species such as Scorpio. Desert scorpions produce almost three times more venom than their forest counterparts, and this seems to be linked to how their mitochondria cope with heat stress. Interestingly, Hottentotta species sit somewhere in between, showing hybrid genetic signatures and venom profiles. This suggests that their genomes are particularly plastic, allowing them to adapt to different environments.”

This year, Zineb reached ‘an important milestone’ in her career: her first oral presentation at an international conference, during the 2025 SEB Annual Conference in Antwerp. “It was an enriching and unforgettable experience, and I am grateful to the SEB for providing a travel grant to make it possible. The atmosphere was stimulating, the exchanges fascinating, and the applause I received at the end of my speech will remain engraved in my memory. I particularly valued the opportunity to network; the meeting had such a friendly atmosphere, I felt that I could approach anyone.”

This strong sense of community is something Zineb is keen to replicate among Moroccan toxicology researchers. “In Morocco, we often face challenges due to limited resources, so collaboration is essential. But at the moment, toxicology researchers in Morocco are not well connected and there is a lot of isolation,” she says. As a member of the Moroccan Society of Toxinology, she is working to help overcome this, particularly by bringing students and early career researchers together. “Through social media and small events, we are trying to build a community where people can share knowledge and support one another,” she says. “I always tell people ‘Never underestimate your contribution, even if it seems small’.”

For the long-term, Zineb says her current dream is to lead a lab group of her own, working at the interface of genomics, comparative analysis, and biotherapeutic applications. “I have been

VENOMOUS ANIMALS PRODUCE A TREASURE TROVE OF BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE COMPOUNDS WITH APPLICATIONS IN BOTH TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AND MODERN PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH.

fortunate to have inspiring supervisors, who not only taught me scientific skills but also how to think critically and work independently, and I want to pass that on to others. The academic life can be challenging at times, particularly the constant pressure to publish. But the thrill that comes from making a new discovery has never left me.”

When not working, Zineb enjoys travelling across Morocco, particularly the coastal regions around Agadir and Essaouira. “Of course, wherever you go in Morocco, you can find scorpions,” she says. “But when I am on ‘holiday mode’, I resist the urge to pick them up. I do that enough in the lab!”

References:

1. Agourram Z, Zegrari R, Kettani A, et al. 2024. Environmental determinants of venom variability in captive scorpions: a comprehensive analysis of diet, temperature, and humidity effects. Toxicon, 251, 108151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. toxicon.2024.108151

2. Agourram Z, Kettani A, Mkamel M 2024. Harnessing Moroccan spider venom peptides as potential therapeutics against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia: computational insights. Toxicon, 248, 108029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. toxicon.2024.108029

Above : Zineb Agourram with a Scorpio maurus scorpion in Ain Dakhla Benslimane, Morocco.

OUTREACH EDUCATION AND DIVERSITY

SO, YOU WANT TO BECOME A MEDIA SPOKESPERSON?

BY CAROLINE WOOD

When a science story hits the headlines, how can we, as researchers, help ensure that media coverage is balanced, accurate, and not misleading? Engaging with journalists and providing expert commentary is a key way that scientists can help the public to understand an emerging issue, or to put a new discovery into perspective. So, how can researchers get involved? Dr Caroline Wood, a Research Communications Manager at the University of Oxford, gives her top tips on how to become a media spokesperson.

INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO YOUR INSTITUTE’S PRESS OFFICE

Journalists looking for expert comments on news stories will often approach the press offices of universities and research institutes. If you’ve never been in touch with your press officer, introduce yourself and your research, and say that you would be glad to respond to media requests. With the news cycle operating so quickly, press officers may have little time to spend searching for spokespeople, so if you are already in their mind you have an advantage.

JOIN A DATABASE

Your institute may have a ‘find an expert’ database that enables journalists to search directly for researchers who are willing to engage with the media.1 If they do, ask your press office if you can be listed. In the UK, the Science Media Centre (SMC)2 champions responsible science reporting by acting as a broker between researchers and journalists. Each day, they handle countless requests from journalists asking to be put in touch with an expert, and they also organize briefing events on topical issues. Introduce yourself and ask to join

their database of experts if you would like to be considered for these opportunities. Other countries have their own SMCs, including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Taiwan, and Spain.

KEEP YOUR ONLINE PROFILE UP TO DATE

Some journalists, particularly feature writers, prefer to search for expert spokespeople themselves (rather than asking a press office). If you want to be ‘found’ by these people, it is crucial to make sure your institutional webpage is up to date. Nothing is more off-putting to journalists than a clearly out-of-date profile and only the vaguest details about what the person specializes in! Include a public-friendly summary of your research, an up-to-date list of publications, any media coverage you have been featured in, which languages you speak, and ideally a high-quality portrait photograph. Make sure you include keywords and any popular search terms that relate to your area (e.g. ‘climate change’, ‘stem cells’); keywords are particularly important if the journalist is searching for an expert using an AI agent, such as ChatGPT. Most importantly, make sure you have contact details listed (for instance, your institutional email). If it isn’t clear to the journalist how they can reach you they will move on elsewhere.

WRITE A LETTER

Publishing a letter in a top-tier news outlet (such as The Times in the UK) can be a brilliant way to get your name out there as an expert spokesperson and put you on the radar of journalists. If you can add a valuable insight to one of the key issues of the day, write it out as a letter and send it to the editor as soon as possible.

Another good option is writing for The Conversation;3 a news outlet where every article is written by academic experts (rather than journalists). As long as your institute is a member of the platform, you can register as an author and pitch articles to the editors. All articles are published under Creative Commons licenses, meaning that they are often republished by other top-tier outlets with attribution. Another benefit is that, if your pitch is accepted, you’ll be paired with one of the editorial team, who will provide expert advice on how to perfect your article for a public audience. Besides the UK-based site, there are various international editions, including for Europe, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Africa.

INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO JOURNALISTS

Find out which journalists cover your specific area; even in these days of shrinking news rooms, it is still possible to find correspondents that specialize in, for instance, climate change, space science, or AI. Get in touch, introduce yourself, and ask them to keep you in mind for future media requests. If the journalist’s contact details aren’t listed online, your institution’s press office may have access to media databases and be able to connect you. Following these journalists on social media and commenting on their posts can also help you build up a rapport with them.

DON’T DISREGARD LOCAL MEDIA

Even if you want to aim for top-tier news outlets, don’t disregard opportunities at a more local level. Build relationships with local journalists; perhaps they may even be keen to visit your lab and publish a feature on your work? Besides giving you good practice in media engagement, this will also increase your exposure, potentially leading to new opportunities.

What to do if you are invited to give an expert comment for the news:

BE QUICK

Journalists typically work to short time frames, particularly when covering breaking news. So, return your comment as soon as possible to have the best chance that it will be included in the article. If you have an unavoidable commitment (such as a lecture), be upfront with the journalist and state when you could deliver the comment by.

KEEP IT BRIEF

Make it as easy as possible for the journalist to slot your comments into a short news article; don’t send them a short essay and presume they can trim it down because they simply don’t have the time.

WRITE FOR THE PUBLIC, NOT ACADEMICS

When writing for mainstream news, you should presume that the reader has no specialist knowledge (a good target to aim for is an intelligent 13-yearold). If you’re not sure whether you are hitting the right note, ask your institute’s press office to take a look. When you send your comment to the journalist, you can ask them if anything is unclear or if they have any remaining questions.

PUT IT IN PERSPECTIVE

Think about what questions the public will have about the story and make sure your comment addresses them. How important is this? Should we be excited or worried? If it is a new technology or treatment, how long will it be before we can use it? As an example: “Whilst this new study is clearly a breakthrough in quantum computing, it will still be many years until we have functioning quantum computers capable of useful work.”

KNOW YOUR ZONE

Being invited to give a comment is a privilege granted by your expertise, so make sure you ‘stay in your lane.’ If journalists ask you to comment on something outside your area, state clearly that it is beyond your specific expertise. Also, make it clear when you are commenting from a personal, rather than academic, perspective. For example: “Our best evidence suggests there is a 70% chance of this species becoming extinct due to climate change. Personally, I feel this would be a tremendous loss and it is worth trying to save it.”

A final tip: be persistent. It can take a while to get on the radar of journalists, but once they know you (and know they can rely on you for prompt, well-written and easily understandable expert comments), they will come back time after time.

References:

1. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/find-an-expert

2. https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/

3. https://theconversation.com/uk

STARTING A SCIENCE BLOG: WHY AN D HOW TO DO IT

BY CAROLINE WOOD

Blogging about your research can be a brilliant way to get started in science communication and share your work with wider audiences. Dr Caroline Wood, a Research Communications Manager at the University of Oxford, explains why writing a blog is worth the effort and gives advice on how to go about it.

WHAT IS A BLOG?

The Oxford English Dictionary describes a blog as “A frequently updated website, typically run by a single person and consisting of personal observations arranged in chronological order, excerpts from other sources, hyperlinks to other sites, etc.; an online journal or diary.” Unlike a corporate (and largely static) website, blogs tend to be personal, based on relatively short articles that are updated regularly, and include opportunities for readers to engage with the content.

WHY START BLOGGING?

● A blog can be a personal showcase of your research

Beyond their general features, blogs vary enormously depending on the subject and the writer, meaning you can tailor them to suit your personality and area of work. This makes them one of the most accessible and engaging forms of science communication, because they allow readers a ‘behind-the-scenes’ glimpse of the people who carry out research. The chronological nature of a blog also makes it ideally suited to charting the evolving nature of a project.

● Blogs are easy to set up

With established blogging platforms such as Blogger and WordPress, you don’t need any

web design or coding experience to set up your own blog. These platforms are generally intuitive and often free to use (if you are prepared to host a few adverts). If you do get stuck, YouTube has a wealth of tutorial videos.

● Blogging can improve your science communication skills

Crafting a succinct, engaging blog post takes skill and definitely improves through practice (reading my early blog posts now makes me cringe!). Mastering this will improve your ability to explain your research and why it matters to all types of audiences, for instance when writing grant proposals or pitching to the press.

● You never know where a blog could lead Your blog’s readers may include policymakers, journalists, teachers, and students, which means it could open up all sorts of opportunities. For instance, one of my blog posts about my PhD research became featured in a college textbook, whilst another led to an interview on local radio about careers in science.

● Interaction can be two-way

Allowing readers to comment on your posts creates opportunities for a two-way dialogue with your audience, which could lead to interesting outcomes. Audience questions might suggest a perspective that you hadn’t considered previously, or spark an idea for a new research project. You may even find new collaborators or receive offers of help to source samples.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR BLOG:

● Define your purpose

To give your posts focus, decide on an overall aim for your blog. For instance, this could be to raise awareness about the field of developmental biology, build a community of conservation physiologists, inspire people about plant science careers, or influence climate change policy.

● Introduce yourself

Make sure that your blog has a prominent, accessible introduction so that anyone who stumbles across your page instantly understands what you do. If the reader has to try too hard to work out what your blog is about they will soon give up and click elsewhere.

● Keep to the limit

Aim for 800–1000 words maximum for each blog post. Beyond this, the completion rate (the number of people who read to the end) drops off a cliff. If you are struggling to condense a topic, consider splitting it over multiple blog posts that tell an evolving story, or summarizing text using images or an infographic.

MASTERING THE ART OF BLOGGING WILL IMPROVE YOUR ABILITY TO EXPLAIN YOUR RESEARCH AND WHY IT MATTERS TO ALL TYPES OF AUDIENCES, FOR INSTANCE WHEN WRITING GRANT PROPOSALS OR PITCHING TO THE PRESS.

● Use public-friendly language

Ensure that your language is suitable for a public audience, and don’t assume any specific scientific knowledge. Avoid using jargon (or clearly define it first) and keep sentences short. AI tools such as ChatGPT can help translate scientific text for public audiences (but do make sure you double check the output and make it your own!). There is no substitute for reading your blog aloud to yourself to check it flows well.

● Structure for accessibility

Use headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to guide the reader through the text, and to help them assess the subject of the blog with a quick scan. Avoid dense, off-putting chunks of text.

● Post regularly

A blog is like a train; it works best when it has some rhythm. Posting regularly helps build an audience by showing that you are active, engaged, and committed to sharing your knowledge. Frequent posts also help maintain visibility, both with human readers (who are more likely to return if they know new content will appear) and with search engines, which favour sites that are kept up to date. Besides adding new posts, you can also add fresh content by updating previous posts.

● Use storytelling techniques

Rather than styling your blog posts like a scientific paper (with the results at the end), use storytelling techniques to draw the reader in. Use hooks and points of intrigue to capture their interest, then follow a clear narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end. If you can, link to topical issues or stories in the press.

● Don’t forget visuals

In our digitally dominant society, having engaging images is a must to attract an audience. But you don’t need to invest in expensive equipment: the camera on your smartphone is more than good enough. It is also not necessary to have professional-style shots: remember that, for most of the public, what goes on in labs is a bit of a mystery. Consequently, candid shots

that give a behind-the-scenes look at life in the lab often drive the most engagement. For my own blog, it seemed that people couldn’t get enough photos of my plants growing in their controlled-environment cabinet!

● Nothing sensitive

Don’t forget that as soon as you write about something online it is ‘out there.’ Avoid including details of anything commercially sensitive or of results that you intend to publish.

● Include a call to action

Invite people to engage with your posts by ending them with calls to action. These could ask people to share their thoughts and experiences about the topic, or to suggest questions that you could investigate next. Or it could be something entirely fun… for instance, when I needed to grow new tobacco plants as hosts for a parasitic weed, I invited my blog readers to suggest names for the plants, which turned out to be more competitive than I had anticipated!

● Tell people

Don’t wait for people to find your blog, tell them about it! Put it in your email signature, include a link on your institutional profile page, and share your new posts on social media. Besides increasing your readership, this can also help keep you accountable to writing new articles.

● Learn from others

One of the best ways to get better at writing science blogs is to read great blogs written by others.

Here are some examples to get you started: The Joyful Microbe: accessible microbiology blogs by researcher Justine Dees. https:// joyfulmicrobe.com/blog/

The Naked Scientists – Biology: engaging explainers by various authors that cover the breadth of biological sciences. https://www. thenakedscientists.com/articles/science-news/ biology

Southern Fried Science: Marine biologists and science communicators bring ocean research and conservation to life. https:// www.southernfriedscience.com/

HOW EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY CAN DRIVE ECOSYSTEM RECOVERY

WHY WE NEED RESILIENT ECOSYSTEMS

Across ecosystems worldwide, biodiversity is in rapid decline, driven by habitat loss, land degradation, and climate change. Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. Without a wide range of species, we cannot maintain the healthy ecosystems that provide the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the clean water we rely on. Pollinators such as insects and birds are responsible for one third of global crop production, while soil microorganisms play a vital role in making nutrients available for plant growth. Trees, shrubs, wetlands, and wild grasslands naturally slow water flow, reduce flooding, cleaning the air, and helping mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide.

Ecological restoration offers a way to reverse biodiversity loss, but defining restoration endpoints is challenging. There is no pristine ‘reference ecosystem’ to replicate, and human pressures combined with climate change mean that restored ecosystems must be resilient to future challenges rather than simply recreating a snapshot of the past. We need to rebuild biodiversity, but we must equally restore ecosystems and habitats that can withstand the pressures they will face in the future.

THE RESTRECO PROJECT

In November 2020, the Natural Environment Research Council provided £2 million to a research consortium led by Cranfield University, in partnership

BY REBECCA ELLERINGTON

with the National Trust, Stirling University, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and Forest Research. Together, they launched a 4-year project named RestREco, with the primary aim of identifying how the UK’s most valuable woodlands and grasslands can be successfully restored. Rather than attempting to recreate historical ecosystems, RestREco focused on ecological complexity and resilience as central goals. The project aimed to determine the most efficient approaches to restore multifunctional ecosystems capable of delivering lasting environmental benefits.

“We cannot simply set in motion the restoration or rewilding of degraded places and hope for the best. The ecosystems we restore must be resilient to these threats, and we will investigate how to achieve this aim.” Professor James Bullock, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY IN ACTION

The RestREco project was divided into seven work packages that together aimed to understand and improve ecological restoration in the UK. In the first stage, researchers surveyed 133 existing restoration sites selected to represent key variables for a natural experiment. Sites varied in terms of time since restoration began (ranging from 10 to 50 years), initial land use (whether intensively farmed agricultural land or former mining and quarrying areas), and proximity to other naturalized woodlands or grassland areas. The sites included 60 broadleaved and mixed woodlands, 60 chalk or

limestone grasslands, and 13 ‘wildcard’ sites such as ancient woodlands, calcareous grasslands, and recently rewilded areas, which served as reference points for comparison.

At each site, researchers carried out detailed ecological assessments measuring soil microbiomes, vegetation, and invertebrates including herbivores, predators, and pollinators. These data were used to calculate measures of ecological complexity, revealing that, predictably, early-stage restoration sites exhibited lower biodiversity, whereas older sites displayed far more complex ecological networks. Using these results, a subset of 36 sites representing a range of ecological complexity was selected for further study. Researchers examined additional measures of complexity, including structural and food web complexity, soil microbiome diversity, and soundscape diversity, alongside emergent ecosystem properties such as litter decomposition rates, pollination services, herbivory and predation rates, and soil thermodynamic efficiency. They found that sites with higher initial ecological complexity showed greater resilience and functional gains over time, demonstrating that initial complexity is a strong predictor of long-term restoration success.

To better understand ecosystem resilience, the project developed and tested experimental methods in woodland and grassland sites. At 10 sites, researchers imposed droughts using passive rainout shelters and measured ecosystem responses in drought and control plots immediately, 1 week after removal, and again 1 year later. These experiments were supplemented with 25 years of remote imagery. The results showed that ecosystems with higher biodiversity and functional redundancy were more resilient to drought, providing robust indicators of long-term resilience under climate change conditions.

The project also explored whether ecological complexity could be accelerated through targeted management interventions. In 20 sites, grassland plots received experimental additions of later successional plant species such as Helianthemum, Campanula, and Asperula, while woodland plots were managed through thinning to enhance structural diversity, or thinning combined with the introduction of deadwood to provide additional habitats, alongside control plots with no intervention. The findings revealed that targeted management—including controlled grazing, selective planting, and structural enhancements— could rapidly increase ecological complexity, confirming that management interventions are an effective tool to accelerate restoration outcomes.

All of the data from these work packages were then integrated to analyse the complex interactions between soil properties, biodiversity, and management practices. This holistic approach revealed how the interplay of these factors influences restoration success, providing a comprehensive understanding of the drivers behind resilient and biodiverse ecosystems.

Finally, the project disseminated its findings to stakeholders, land managers, and policymakers through workshops, publications, and consultations. This work has influenced restoration strategies and policy development, ensuring that the insights gained from experimental biology, particularly regarding ecological complexity and resilience, are applied to real-world ecosystem management, guiding the next generation of restoration projects.

OUTCOME

Current and widely used approaches to habitat restoration—such as agri-environment government programmes, species reintroduction projects, and environmental obligations for developers—are not sufficient to reverse the large-scale habitat loss we are experiencing, and often encourage homogeneous communities focused on protecting target species, rather than fostering resilient ecosystems.

The results of the RestREco project demonstrate that complex and biodiverse ecosystems are more resilient to ongoing human pressures and the challenges posed by climate change. The project has provided a clearer understanding of how ecological complexity develops within ecosystems and across landscapes, offering guidance on how to restore for complexity. In practice, this involves many of the same restoration activities used in traditional approaches, but with a focus on whole habitats and the complex interactions between species, rather than targeting specific species or communities.

Targeted management interventions—including controlled grazing, selective planting, and structural enhancements—can help to rapidly increase

ecological complexity. As such, management interventions and the translocation of key species remain important for re-establishing missing processes in an ecosystem. However, successful restoration requires more than reintroduction projects. We must also embed restored habitats within a broader landscape context, considering the proximity to other habitats and how sites interact within the wider ecosystem.

POLICY WORK

Of course, successful integration of the restoration and rewilding agendas requires more than just scientific consensus, it also demands public support and effective policy coordination emphasizes ecological principles while remaining grounded in the sociocultural context.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Protecting ecosystems and biodiversity is one of the greatest challenges of our time. With climate change, urban development, and other societal pressures transforming landscapes, understanding how we can restore ecosystems and create resilient habitats has never been more important. The RestREco project has advanced our understanding of ecological complexity, and provides a framework for restoration strategies that go beyond conventional approaches. By linking scientific results to practical restoration, management, and policy, it offers a clear example of how experimental biology research can drive meaningful, real-world change, helping to safeguard biodiversity for future generations.

LEARN MORE

THE RESULTS OF THE RESTRECO PROJECT DEMONSTRATE THAT COMPLEX AND BIODIVERSE ECOSYSTEMS ARE MORE RESILIENT TO ONGOING HUMAN PRESSURES AND THE CHALLENGES POSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE.

● “Biodiversity research” National Trust. Available at: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/ biodiversity-research

● “New research set to unlock nature mysteries and tackle biodiversity crisis” Forest Research. Available at: https://www.forestresearch.gov. uk/news/new-research-set-to-unlock-naturemysteries-and-tackle-biodiversity-crisis/

● “£2 million research project to restore lost habitat” BBC Newsround. Available at: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/60612345

Results from the RestREco project are already shaping ecological restoration policy and practice across the UK. Its findings have informed the National Trust’s 2025–2035 strategy, which now places “Restore Nature” at its core, prioritizing resilience and ecosystem service outcomes over traditional reference-based restoration models. The project has also contributed to broader conservation policy dialogues at the National Trust Advisory Group conference and the People’s Assembly’s ‘People’s Plan for Nature’, highlighting its role in guiding both public engagement and policy frameworks.

Furthermore, RestREco has strengthened the scientific foundation for national biodiversity policies, including the 30x30 target and Local Nature Recovery Strategies. By demonstrating the importance of ecological complexity and resilience for restoration success, the project provides strong evidence for incorporating these principles into policy and practice, and in doing so bridging the gap between scientific research and real-world environmental action.

● “A microbial diversity perspective within the Restoring Resilient Ecosystems project” Cranfield University. Available at: https://www.cranfield. ac.uk/press/news-2024/new-generation-ofecological-models-needed-to-safeguardfuture-of-biodiversity

● “RestREco: Restoring Resilient Ecosystems” UKRI. Available at: https://gtr.ukri.org/ projects?ref=NE%2FV006487%2F1&utm

● Global change and ecosystem resilience – Wiley Online Library. Available at: https://onlinelibrary. wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.17397

● “BES 2024 Poster: Restoring Resilient Ecosystems” RestREco. Available at: https://restreco.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/02/bes-2024-poster-v2. pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

● “A multi-scale approach to integrating rewilding into agricultural landscapes” Rey Benayas, 2025, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/ articles/10.1002/fee.2567/full

● “Why is biodiversity important?” Royal Society. Available at: https://royalsociety.org/ news-resources/projects/biodiversity/why-isbiodiversity-important/

TWO-EYED SEEING: REAL-WORLD IMPACT WITH INDIGENOUS SCIENCE

BY GINA WONG

Science has undoubtedly changed the world. From vaccines to crop improvement, experimental biology has made the world a better and safer place to live in. But have you ever wondered who, and what knowledge, got left behind in the march of progress?

from phrenology (a set of head measurements, now considered pseudoscience) being used to claim that Indigenous Peoples were ‘inferior’, invasive experiments being conducted on them without consent, and the promotion of their forced sterilization, justified through the racist notion of ‘bad genes’.

Modern science is not always better. Indigenous knowledge systems are overlooked or dismissed, despite their sophistication and continuing relevance. Other times, attempts to involve Indigenous communities can result in extractive ‘helicopter science’. This is where Western scientists come to a community for a short period of time to do a study without input from the community, before leaving to publish papers and progress their careers. This often happens without the community being acknowledged or seeing the outputs or benefits of the research. Research practices like these disrespects Indigenous sovereignty and disregard their knowledge.

Across the globe, Indigenous Peoples have cultivated a wealth of knowledge, and developed remarkable innovations from the three sisters crop-planting method developed in the Americas and loʻi kalo wetland cultivation in Hawaii, to the discovery and use of countless medicinal herbs such as Centella asiatica in African traditional medicine. These practices, rooted in generations of living on and with the land, were initially labelled as ‘primitive’ by colonizers and are only now gaining wider recognition for their complexity and sustainability.

This multigenerational knowledge is much more detailed and nuanced than any scientist can gain from spending just one or two field seasons at a site, in the same way that a doctor, no matter how skilled, will never know your family members as intimately as you do. Due to this deep understanding, many Indigenous communities have a relational view of ecosystems, often developing sacred ties to their land, alongside oral and observational traditions of knowledgekeeping. This knowledge takes different modes to Western science, but that doesn’t diminish its value. Perhaps we should consider the limitations of the Western scientific method.

Despite discrimination, microaggressions, and the pressure to conform, many Indigenous scientists walk the halls of academia. They have developed ‘two-eyed seeing’, a way of understanding the world through both Indigenous and Western lenses. Coined by Mi’kmaq Elders Albert D Marshall and Murdena Marshall alongside Cheryl Bartlett, two-eyed seeing allows Indigenous scientists to tackle modern problems such as the effects of climate change.

Indigenous scientists and their communities have been calling for more equitable partnerships (sometimes called ‘co-production’) with scientists who conduct research on their land. They promote research with, rather than on, Indigenous communities and their land. Slowly, scientists and policymakers are beginning to listen. We are beginning to respect Indigenous communities’ knowledge and rights to their land. Together, we can build a path towards repairing settler-colonial damage and healing the Earth.

A powerful example of Indigenous-led efforts can be found on the Pacific Northwest coast of the modern USA. Salmon were brothers to the peoples in this region. They sustained the people with food and brought fertility to the land. In return, the people maintained the waterways, creating places for returning fish to rest and maintaining estuaries so young salmon can acclimatize to seawater. However, their land and fishing rights were eroded by colonists. Private companies overfished at traditional fishing sites and the floodplains were degraded by farming activities; roads and dams prevented the migratory fish from returning to spawn. As a result, the salmon populations declined. Now, habitat restoration projects are underway in partnership with the Nooksack Indian Tribe, the Lummi and Quinault Indian Nations, and the Hoh, Quileute and Makah Tribes, along with NGOs and supported by NOAA. These restoration efforts include removing dams and road culverts, as well as Indigenous-led construction of log jams along the river, which reduce flooding risk and provide shelter for fish. These initiatives will allow salmon to return to their spawning sites, the rivers to return to their natural course, and a return to the peoples’ traditional ways of life.

DESPITE DISCRIMINATION, MICROAGGRESSIONS, AND THE PRESSURE TO CONFORM, MANY INDIGENOUS SCIENTISTS WALK THE HALLS OF ACADEMIA.

This isn’t an isolated example. In northern Thailand, the Hmong community collaborated with the National Park Authority and the Forest Restoration Research Unit to restore the forest ecosystem by planting diverse tree species that were useful or culturally significant. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, freshwater ecosystem restoration is underway using Indigenous practices and involving the local community. Reindeer migratory routes are being restored in northern Sweden, in partnership with Sámi communities, with the aim of rewilding the ecosystem.

These partnerships require patience and consistent communication from both sides. It may be more time-consuming than a study that isn’t coproduced, but the benefits are greater as it builds capacity to do larger-scale experiments; the relationship formed can lead to longerterm collaborations; and the knowledge and skills gained can be applied in other settings. Indigenous-led conservation efforts often have better biodiversity outcomes than those without Indigenous involvement, and directly benefit the Indigenous community that relies on the ecosystem. Moreover, some studies report improved health outcomes for the Indigenous communities involved. The benefits of Indigenousled science go beyond the paper that’s published after a field trial. They may be more difficult to articulate and report, but the impact is felt, nevertheless.

WE ARE BEGINNING TO RESPECT INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES’ KNOWLEDGE AND RIGHTS TO THEIR LAND. TOGETHER, WE CAN BUILD A PATH TOWARDS REPAIRING SETTLERCOLONIAL DAMAGE AND HEALING THE EARTH.

Find out more:

www.Indigenousled.org

www.umass.edu/gateway/research/ Indigenous-knowledges

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-02200029-2

doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coaf049 www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/ endangered-species-conservation/savingpacific-salmon-and-steelhead#connectingpeople-and-salmon-from-summit-to-sea

We recognize that some of the topics discussed in this article are of a sensitive nature and we have tried to approach it with care and respect. Our intention is to represent the diverse perspectives and experiences of Indigenous communities as thoughtfully and respectfully as possible. If you are part of any of the communities mentioned, or if you have comments or suggestions, we would be pleased to hear from you at admin@sebiology. org. Likewise, if you would like to share your own perspective through an article or webinar, please do get in touch; we are always happy to hear new ideas and voices.

REINDEER MIGRATORY ROUTES ARE BEING RESTORED IN NORTHERN SWEDEN, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SÁMI COMMUNITIES, WITH THE AIM OF REWILDING THE ECOSYSTEM.

SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY