Fueled by a passion for molecular biology and the urge to contribute to sustainable agriculture, I obtained a BSc. in Bioscience Engineering from the University of Antwerp and went on to complete my MSc. at Ghent University in 2016. During my master thesis at HortiCell, I studied the effect of small molecules on adventitious rooting using transcriptomics. Now, I am doing a PhD to investigate shoot regeneration from root explants in Arabidopsis thaliana, exploiting GWAS to dissect natural genetic variation and integrating data from phosphoproteomics, RT-qPCR, knock-out mutants and reporter lines to build a model of the signaling network underlying de novo shoot organogenesis. Ultimately, knowledge on rate-limiting molecular factors will enable more rational design of tissue culture protocols and hence facilitate mass clonal propagation of elite cultivars.