Predoctoral fellow

In the context of my master dissertation, I performed research at the Rhizosphere group on the involvement of germin-like proteins (GLPs) in the establishment and progression of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) symbiosis. This thesis was conducted with the aim of increasing the understanding of plant genes, such as GLPs, in mediating AMF colonization, which in the long term may enhance AMF-induced crop growth benefits, and thereby its agricultural applicability as biofertilizer. In 2023, I started my PhD focussing on expanding local soybean cultivation towards northern latitudes. The establishment of symbiosis with indigenous rhizobia strains acclimatized to these regions is crucial for efficient nitrogen fixation and the production of protein-rich beans. The ‘Soy in 1000 Garden’ initiative has unveiled the coexistence of beneficial local Bradyrhizobium sp. and non-diazotrophic Tardiphaga robiniae within functional soybean nodules, raising questions about their role as either symbiotic facilitators or competitive exploiters.

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Qian obtained his doctoral degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2011, under the supervision of Professor Qifa Zhang at the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement in Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China. During his PhD study, his research interest was focused on the dissection of the role of gibberellin metabolism and signaling in the biological basis of rice heterosis. Due to his interest in phytohormone research, especially at the interface between biology and chemistry, he joined Stéphanie Robert's group in Umeå Plant Science Center in Sweden as a postdoctoral researcher in 2012, working on the mechanistic understanding of phytohormone-mediated differential growth in Arabidopsis using a chemical biology strategy and the apical hook as a model. In June 2019, he joined the lab of Jenny Russinova to continue the chemical biology research to identify the targets for small molecules and the potential BR binding proteins.
 

My career path

I am both full professor at Ghent University and group leader at the VIB center of Plant Systems Biology in Belgium, combining guidanance of my research group with teaching and organizing of University education. Next to deciphering important scientific questions with my research team, it is my ultimate goal to use teaching to stimulate students into becoming the next generation of scientists that aim to find solutions for nowadays and future problems through applying a combination of fundamental and applied research.
 
Graduated as a chemist, I started my research career in 1992 at the UGent focusing on the development of new chemical-inducible gene expression systems for plants, but soon I became engaged in trying to understand the molecular control of the cell cycle. Using at that time the novel yeast 2-hybrid approach I was able to identify in the pre-genome era novel important key cell cycle genes and functionally characterized them. At a second stage of my career I started to map the role of these genes in plant developmental and physiological processes, including the control of the endoreplication cycle and the way plants adjust their cell cycle in response to DNA damage-inducing stresses. More recently we identified unique plant cell cycle regulators that are important in the gain of stem cell identity and study how these regulators help plants to regenerate from tissue damage. In parallel, in the frame on an intra-university collaboration we studied the cell cycle of diatoms, being are a major group of microalgae found in the oceans, waterways and soils.
 
During my late pre-doc and early post-doc career, I briefly spend time is the research facilities of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London (Prof P. Nurse) and the INRA Centre Versailles (Prof. D. Bouchez) to study the effect of plant cell cycle gene expression in yeast and to isolate T-DNA insertion mutants in cell cycle genes, respectively.
 
In 2008, I became professor at the Ghent University in the currently named Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. This department is also embedded in the VIB Center of Plant Systems Biology of the VIB. Since 2002, I am appointed full-time principal investigator of the Cell Cycle group at VIB. In my group, we still study the molecular mechanisms that drive plant regeneration following wounding or DNA damage-inflicted damage, where we expanded our knowledge from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to other plant species, including Marchantia polymorpha, maize and poplar.