Full record —
All field-building activities
Mar
2024
2024
Invited seminar
University of Edinburgh — plant evolution and development seminar series
Title: "Laying the foundations for plant synthetic genomics by creating a Plant Artificial Chromosome in Physcomitrium patens." First international invited talk on the programme, given at the PhD alma mater where the scientific question was formed. 22 March 2024.
Sep
2024
2024
Talk
GCSB 2024 — German Conference on Synthetic Biology, Regensburg
Title: "Laying the foundations for plant synthetic genomics by creating a Plant Artificial Chromosome in Physcomitrium patens." First presentation of the programme to the national German synthetic biology community. 18–20 September 2024.
Mar
2025
2025
Talk
euMOSS Meeting 2025 — Wageningen, Netherlands
Title: "Laying the foundations for plant synthetic genomics by creating a Plant Artificial Chromosome in Physcomitrium patens." European bryophyte research community meeting. Attendance documented by @reskilab (Reski lab, Freiburg) on Instagram, 25 March 2025.
29 Jul
2024
2024
Invited seminar
LIIGH Seminar — Laboratorio Internacional de Investigación sobre el Genoma Humano, Querétaro
Invited seminar at LIIGH (UNAM), Querétaro, 29 July 2024. Organised by Dr María Avila Arcos. Plant synthetic genomics and the synthetic chromosome programme presented to genomics students and PIs, with discussion of potential collaboration opportunities including bioinformatics contributions and research stays for LCG students.
📍 LIIGH · Querétaro, Mexico · 29 July 2024 · Invited by Dr María Avila Arcos
Apr
2026
2026
Keynote
YRSPP 2026 — Young Researchers' Symposium on Plant Photobiology, Edinburgh
Invited keynote speaker at YRSPP 2026, Edinburgh, 15–18 April 2026. The fourth edition of the biennial symposium for early-career plant photobiology researchers. Plant synthetic genomics presented to the next generation of plant scientists.
2026
Prize nomination
Förderpreis der Horst Wiehe-Stiftung 2026 — self-nominated
Self-nomination for the MSB 2025 paper on absolute protein quantification in the plant circadian clock (Urquiza-García, Molina, Halliday & Millar).
Jul–Aug
2026
2026
Upcoming · Faculty
Cold Spring Harbor Asia Synthetic Biology Course — Invited Faculty
Faculty invitation to CSHL Asia, Suzhou, 26 July – 9 August 2026. Organised by Junbiao Dai and Daniel Schindler. Faculty slot before major papers are published preceded the major publications from the programme.
Talks —
Presentations, seminars & keynotes
Mar
2024
2024
Invited seminar · Edinburgh
"Laying the foundations for plant synthetic genomics by creating a Plant Artificial Chromosome in Physcomitrium patens"
University of Edinburgh, plant evolution and development group. Virtual. 22 March 2024.
Sep
2024
2024
Talk · GCSB 2024
"Laying the foundations for plant synthetic genomics by creating a Plant Artificial Chromosome in Physcomitrium patens"
German Conference on Synthetic Biology, Regensburg. 18–20 September 2024. gcsb2024.de →
Mar
2025
2025
Talk · euMOSS 2025
"Laying the foundations for plant synthetic genomics by creating a Plant Artificial Chromosome in Physcomitrium patens"
euMOSS Meeting, Wageningen, March 2025. Documented @reskilab Instagram 25 Mar 2025.
29 Jul
2024
2024
Invited seminar · LIIGH
LIIGH Seminar — Querétaro, Mexico
Laboratorio Internacional de Investigación sobre el Genoma Humano (UNAM). Organised by Dr María Avila Arcos. 29 July 2024.
Apr
2026
2026
Keynote · YRSPP 2026
YRSPP 2026 — Young Researchers' Symposium on Plant Photobiology, Edinburgh
Invited keynote. Edinburgh, 15–18 April 2026.
Jul–Aug
2026
2026
Upcoming · CSHL Asia Faculty
Cold Spring Harbor Asia Synthetic Biology Course
Faculty invitation. Suzhou, 26 July – 9 August 2026. Organised by Junbiao Dai and Daniel Schindler.
Students —
Supervised theses 2021–2025
Two pillars: molecular control (9 students) and chromosome engineering (7 students, below). Control tools developed in the first pillar became instruments for the second.
Pillar I — Molecular Control
MSc · Aug 2021
Sascha Ferraro
Characterization of Programmable Synthetic Transcription Factors for Creating a Non-cooperative Bistable Toggle Switch
Programmable gene circuit design — foundational logic for the synthetic genomics programme
MSc · Oct 2021
Christoph Wagner
Engineering adaptation: Combining Systems Biology, Synthetic Biology and Bioinformatics to control a plant's phenotype
First MSc supervised at HHU Düsseldorf
Lab rotation · Jun 2023
Lars Broeker
Optogenetic regulation of Arabidopsis DELLA genes
Light-inducible control of plant hormone signalling pathways
BSc · Sep 2023
Sebastian Kusnik
Optogenetic Control of Prime Editing and Flowering in Plants
Light-inducible precision genome editing and flowering control in plants
BSc · Nov 2023
Tobias Falkenburg
Optogenetics in Time
Temporal dynamics of light-inducible systems; light control of circadian and developmental processes
MSc · Jun 2024
Armando Teixeira
Quantitative optogenetic control of gene expression and genetics in plants
Closed-loop quantitative control of gene expression with light
MSc · Feb 2025
Francisco Pirichinsky
Optogenetic control of plant metabolic pathways through modulation of gene expression
Light-inducible control of plant metabolic pathway genes
BSc · 2025
Kevin Dietrich
Optogenetic Systems in Plants
Review and characterisation of plant optogenetic systems
MSc · Jun 2025
Benjamin Zinkler
Optogenetic control and orthogonal reconstruction of photoperiodic regulators
Light-inducible control of photoperiodic and flowering time regulators
Pillar II — Plant Synthetic Genomics
BSc · Sep 2023
Luca Weber
Synthetic Genomics: Establishment of Molecular Techniques and Laboratory Infrastructure
Built the experimental infrastructure — sequencing, transformation, large-DNA tools — that all subsequent synthetic genomics work depends on
BSc · Jul 2024
Dejan Andrejic
Establishing a standardized, computationally aided toolkit for neo-centromere synthesis in Physcomitrium patens
Standardised DNA part library and computational tools for synthetic chromosome construction · Co-author, RepTiles preprint 2025
BSc · Dec 2024
Malik Trippensee
Building a programmable CRISPR based system for seeding CENH3 in Physcomitrium patens
Programmable targeting system for directing chromosome identity to synthetic DNA in P. patens
BSc · Jan 2025 ★
Viktoria Petrova
From Reusable Modular Biological Parts to Plant Synthetic Genomics Driven by Biodesign Automation
First author, RepTiles preprint (bioRxiv 2025) — the field's first published methodology paper · Automated large-DNA assembly design platform from community-standard parts
BSc · Jul 2025
Tobias Finkenrath
Studying the recombinogenic capacity of Golden Braid assembled DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Physcomitrium patens
Large synthetic DNA assembly and stable integration into the P. patens genome — directly preceded the current synthetic chromosome body experiment · Co-author, RepTiles preprint 2025
BSc · Nov 2025
Sarah Otto
Investigating CRISPR-induced CenH3 tagging in Physcomitrium patens
Centromere protein tagging and quantification — confirmed functional lines for the JTF programme
BSc · Dec 2025
Elisaveta Lobkis
Synthetic Chromosome Stability: Establishing a Bottom-up Approach for Synthetic Telomeres
Synthetic telomere strategy for the plant artificial chromosome — closes the last structural component gap in the programme
Field-building significance: Seven theses in the chromosome engineering pillar collectively address every essential structural component — infrastructure, parts library, targeting, assembly, integration, centromere protein quantification, telomere strategy. Three BSc alumni (Andrejic, Finkenrath, Petrova) are co-authors on the RepTiles preprint, with Petrova as first author.
Community —
Conferences & recognition
Mar
2024
2024
Edinburgh
Invited seminar — University of Edinburgh
Plant evolution and development seminar series. PhD alma mater. 22 March 2024.
Sep
2024
2024
GCSB 2024
German Conference on Synthetic Biology — Regensburg
National synthetic biology community. gcsb2024.de →
Mar
2025
2025
euMOSS 2025
euMOSS Meeting — Wageningen
European bryophyte research community, with Prof. Ralf Reski. Documented @reskilab Instagram 25 Mar 2025.
Apr
2026
2026
Keynote · YRSPP 2026
YRSPP 2026 — Young Researchers' Symposium on Plant Photobiology, Edinburgh
Invited keynote. Edinburgh, 15–18 April 2026.
29 Jul
2024
2024
Invited seminar
LIIGH Seminar — Querétaro, Mexico
Laboratorio Internacional de Investigación sobre el Genoma Humano (UNAM). Organised by Dr María Avila Arcos. Latin American genomics community. 29 July 2024.
2026
Prize nomination
Förderpreis der Horst Wiehe-Stiftung 2026
Self-nomination for the MSB 2025 paper (Urquiza-García, Molina, Halliday & Millar).
Upcoming —
Confirmed future activities
Jul–Aug
2026
2026
Faculty · CSHL Asia
Cold Spring Harbor Asia Synthetic Biology Course
Invited faculty. Suzhou, 26 July – 9 August 2026. Organised by Junbiao Dai and Daniel Schindler. Faculty invitation before major papers are published signals external recognition relevant to current developments in the field.
2026
Ongoing · Publication
First synthetic chromosome body paper — in preparation
First major corresponding-author paper in plant synthetic genomics currently in preparation. Will establish the assembly platform in the peer-reviewed record.
2027
Ongoing · Funding
New funding cycles in preparation — including European-level competitive grants
Applications for new funding cycles are being prepared in coordination with the HHU grants office and CEPLAS, including competitive funding at the European level. The programme has secured three independent funding sources since 2022 and is actively developing the next phase of support.