Helsinki University laboratory visit funded by Development travel fellowship

I would like to express my gratitude for the travel fellowship I was awarded this year for a visit to a laboratory in Helsinki University. During my trip to Yka Heliarutta’s lab in Helsinki, I learned three new histological techniques: plastic embedding of plant root tissue followed by cross-sectioning, in situ hybridization with such tissue and sectioning of samples stained for assays of gene reporter expression. I now have the confidence to practice these techniques in Cardiff where I am researching in developmental genetics in plants for my PhD, and I already have several experiments lined up that will utilize them. I also have some exciting results from the experiments I used to practice these techniques in Helsinki. We detected a new subtle phenotype in a cell cycle mutant that doesn’t have any general growth defects, as far as we can tell. These direct benefits of visiting the lab were accompanied by other benefits, such as networking with other plant scientists carrying out research within the institute I was based in. Members of the team I worked with were very familiar with plant vascular development; I learned a lot from them and had some stimulating conversations. I also set up a new collaboration with a different lab, which will hopefully allow me to address some questions I’ve been asking for some time. The lab focuses on secondary growth in plants, one area of the research I am carrying out for my PhD, so I am likely to get good advice on the conclusions I can draw on results I obtain, and what experiments I should perform next. The trip has also allowed us here in Cardiff to finalize a manuscript we have been preparing for several months now. We hope to submit this to the journal Current Biology in October.

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