Current members
Maria Beatriz Capitão
Assistante-Doctorante / PhD Student
Maria Beatriz obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Lisboa. During her bachelor, she was a trainee in the Plant Molecular Biology lab at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) lead by Paula Duque where she was involved in a project related to MFS transporters and abiotic stress resistance. For her master’s she moved to Sweden where she enrolled the Genetic and Molecular Plant Sciences program from Stockholm University, Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agriculture. For her master’s thesis she joined the Melnyk lab lead by Charles Melnyk where she studied the role of ROS in plant parasitism in P. japonicum. She started her PhD in the Barberon lab working with Suberin function and regulation in the endodermis.
Fabienne Cléard-Karch
Assistante de recherche / Research Assistant
Fabienne experiences a long-lasting and fruitful career at the University of Geneva where she studied Biology and obtained the “Certificat de Biologie Moléculaire” in the group of Pierre Spierer in 1988. Her taste for the model organism Drosophila and for chromatin research led her to follow the group of Pierre at the station de Zoologie in Malagnou where she obtained her PhD in 1993. In 2000, she joined the group of François Karch as a research assistant to work on the homeotic genes of the bithorax complex in Drosophila. She recently changed topic and department to join the lab of Marie Barberon.
Publications
Ines Hadj Bachir
Post-doctorante / Postdoctoral Researcher
Ines obtained her master’s degree in plant development and plant-microbe interactions at the University of Toulouse in 2019. During her PhD at the Laboratoire de Recherche en Sciences Végétales (LRSV) in Toulouse in the team of Dr Fabien Mounet, she worked on the interplay between cold stress response and wood formation in Eucalyptus trees. After her PhD, she joined Pierre Marc Delaux’s lab at the LRSV for a first post-doc focusing on the evolution of regulatory networks in plant-microbe symbiotic interactions. In December 2024, she joined Prof. Marie Barberon’s lab as a postdoctoral researcher to work on the regulation of suberin formation, pursuing her long-time interest in studying regulatory networks in plants.
Jian Pu Han
Post-doctorant / Postdoctoral Researcher
Jian-Pu obtained his Bachelor degree from Henan Agricultural University in 2012. Afterwards, he moved to China Agricultural University (CAU) for his PhD and to continue the study of plant sciences. Between 2015 and 2018, he joined Prof. Joerg Kudla’s German group in University of Münster for 3-year joint PhD training. During the PhD, Jian-Pu focused on the study of calcium and phosphorylation dependent activation of NADPH oxidase RBOHF. In January 2019, Jian-Pu obtained his Doctoral degree in CAU. In May 2019, Jian-Pu came to Europe again and joined the Barberon lab as a postdoctoral researcher to study the suberin plasticity and its function in plant adaptation to nutrients.
Publications
Celeste Aurora Fiorenza
Assistante-Doctorante / PhD Student
Celeste Aurora obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Milan. For her master’s studies she enrolled in the Plant Science double degree program from University of Milan and University of Grenoble Alpes. During this period she could attend two internships at LPCV laboratories at CEA in Grenoble working on abiotic stress in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Afterwards, for her master’s thesis project she moved to Geneva to study UV-B mediated chloroplast biogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana in the lab of Roman Ulm. In 2023, she joined the Barberon lab as a PhD student working on root permeability in the nutritional context.
Linnka Legendre
Adjointe scientifique / Scientific Adjoint
Linnka studied Cellular and Molecular Genetics at the University of Paris XI-Orsay. Then she did her PhD at the Institut de Biochimie et Génétique Cellulaires of Bordeaux, on the mitochondrial biogenesis in the yeast S. cerevisiae (1998-2001). From 2002-2007, she did a postdoc with Jean-David Rochaix in Geneva, on chloroplast biogenesis in the alga C. reinhardtii. Then she worked as a technical staff scientist with Michel Goldschmidt-Clermont in Geneva on Chloroplast Molecular Genetics in C. reinhardtii (2007-2017). In 2018, she joined the lab of Marie Barberon as a scientific adjoint.
Kevin Robe
Post-doctorant / Postdoctoral Researcher
Kevin studied agronomy in Vetagro-Sup engineer school in Clermont Ferrand, in France. For his master, he moved to the lab Biochimie et physiologie moléculaire des plantes in Montpellier in the team of Dr Christian DUBOS where he worked on a transcription factor regulating iron homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana. He then pursue a PhD in plant biology in the same team, under the supervision of Dr Christian DUBOS and Dr Esther IZQUIERDO ALEGRE. During his PhD, he worked on coumarins localization and dynamic in Arabidopsis thaliana roots. He also investigated the role of coumarins in iron acquisition. He joined the Plant Nutrition and Development group of Prof. Marie Barberon as a postdoc in March 2021. He studies the transcellular pathway for nutrient transport in Arabidopsis thaliana roots.
Publications
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