POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW

Omar Hdedeh obtained his Bachelor's degree in Biology from the Lebanese University, followed by a Master's 1 in Plant Biology and Environment at the same institution. He then moved to France to pursue a Master's degree in Tropical Plant Biotechnology at the University of Montpellier. During this time, he conducted a research internship in Dr. Enric Zelazny's group (Christophe Maurel Lab), investigating the role of HIR proteins organized in nanodomains and their function in regulating aquaporins in Arabidopsis thaliana. Following this, Omar received a doctoral fellowship from the Doctoral School to conduct a three-year Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Enric Zelazny, funded by Institut Agro Montpellier. His research focused on the cellular and physiological regulation of aquaporins by HIR proteins, studying water transport in roots and stomatal closure in response to flg22 in Arabidopsis hir mutants. Through this work, Omar gained expertise in cell biology, advanced microscopy and plant physiology. After completing his Ph.D. contract, he held a two-month position as a research engineer in the same lab, funded by CNRS. Since March 2025, he has joined the Van Damme lab as a postdoctoral researcher, aiming to investigate the interplay between SCAMP proteins, key regulators of protein trafficking, and PIP aquaporins in Arabidopsis.

PREDOCTORAL FELLOW

Tingyu Zhu studied on cell biology at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in China. Her research focused on the role of GCCK/RP motif and conserved cysteine residues in distribution and function of Tetraspanin proteins in Arabidopsis. After her master‘s degree, she started her PhD in Advanced Live Cell Imaging group of Prof. Daniel Van Damme since September 2022. She is working on unraveling the role of temperature-dependent AtEH/Pan1 phosphorylation.

Predoctoral fellow

So Hyung graduated from Ghent University Global Campus in South Korea in 2021, majoring Molecular Biotechnology with magna cum laude. Her Bachelor's project was conducted in the lab of Prof. Dr. Hoo Sun Chung, focusing on unravelling a novel suppressor in MAP kinase signalling network. Followed by working as a full-time research assistant in Chung lab after graduation, So Hyung has participated in the project 'Reprogramming Stem Cell Niches', gaining expertise in protoplasting and marker-assisted microscopy screening of Arabidopsis chemical mutants. After having a fruitful exchange semester in UGent, So Hyung continued her passion in plants by commencing master programme in Biochemistry & Biotechnology, focusing on plant biotechnology and bioinformatics. Master projects and thesis were conducted in PSB Bio-Energy lab and Cell Cycle lab, delving into plant regeneration potentials in Arabidopsis and poplar to improve regeneration efficiency of poorly-propagating species. After obtaining her Master's degree, So Hyung embarked on a Ph.D. journey in Advanced Live Cell Imaging lab, under mentorship of Prof. Dr. Daniël Van Damme. So Hyung is part of the GOA consortium 'Microspore embryoGENESIS', collaborating with lab of Programmed Cell Death (Nowack lab), Oxygen Stress Signalling (Van Breusegem lab), Inter-organelle Signalling (De Clercq lab) and Horticell (Geelen lab). Within the project, So Hyung aims to elucidate the role of autophagy in microspore embryogenesis to enhance double haploid production in crops, using Brassica napus (oilseed rape) as a model plant.

Alvaro Furones studied Biotechnology at University of Salamanca, Spain. After that he moved to Belgium to study the Master of Biotechnology and Biochemistry at Gent University. For his Master thesis he worked on characterizing the structural aspects of Themis2, a protein involved in T-cell differentiation. Since 2023 he joined the advanced live cell imaging group where he is working on unraveling the structural and functional basis of the TPLATE complex.

I completed my Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology at Ghent University in 2021. During my studies, I conducted my Master’s thesis research in the Vascular Development lab at PSB. Presently, I am pursuing my PhD through a collaborative effort involving the company Aphea.Bio and two research labs at PSB: the Advanced Live Cell Imaging and Rhizosphere labs. My current research focuses on unraveling the mode-of-action of biocontrol agents against fungal pathogens in wheat.

Evelien Mylle graduated in 2001 as Industrial engineer, specialization biochemistry at the Provinciale Industriele Hogeschool (PIH) in Kortrijk, Belgium. After working 6 months at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (DMBR) at Gent University, she moved to Brussels to work at the Scientific Institute of Public Health (IPH), section Biotechnology and Biosafety (SBB) to trace genetic modified organisms in food. Since August 2004, she joined the former Cell Biology Group (Prof. Danny Geelen) at PSB. From 2006 this group changed to the Brassinosteroids group under the supervision of Dr. Eugenia Russinova, where she contributed to study the Brassinosteroid pathway, mainly by using fluorescence microscopy techniques. In order to become more specialized in the microscopy field, she moved from January 2015 to the Advanced Live Cell Imaging group under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Van Damme to further develop new microscopy tools for plant cell biologists at PSB.

Michaël Vandorpe graduated in 2003 at KATHO Roeselare as Bachelor in biotechnology and started to work in the Oxidative Stress Signaling group at PSB. In 2016 he joined the Advanced Live Cell Imaging group.