Emma Aller - new PhD student in epigenetic regulation
On 1 October 2016 Emma Aller commenced as a PhD student at DynaMo Center. She is looking forward to digging deeper into the link between glucosinolates and epigenetic regulation.
Emma Aller has already been connected to DynaMo Center for more than 4 years as she has formerly worked as a laboratory assistant and a research assistant as well as done both her BSc and MSc projects here.
Solid experience with molecular biology techniques
Emma Aller graduated from the MSc Biology-Biotechnology Program at the University of Copenhagen in 2015.
Her MSc project, which took place at DynaMo Center, was about epigenetic regulation of plant defence, and included methods from molecular biology and genomics as well as bioinformatics and she analyzed the glucosinolate profiles of more than 1500 plants.
On 1 October 2016 Emma began a 3-year PhD position at Dynamo Center.
Plants pass information on to their progeny
As a PhD student, Emma will dig even deeper into the link between plant defence and epigenetic regulation. She is very interested in the ability of plants to propagate increased defenses to their next generations.
Emma explains,
"The molecular mechanisms behind this ability are still to a large degree unknown and is a dream project for me to work on. Overall, the epigenetic control of the dynamic regulation typical for plants deeply fascinates me and I wish work with this topic to ultimately understand the impact of this level of gene regulation on plant fitness."
Emma's PhD supervisors are DynaMo partners Associate Professor Meike Burow and Professor Daniel J. Kliebenstein.