I studied Bioscience Engineering at the university of Ghent focusing on Cell and Gene Biotechnology. After obtaining my masters, I did a PhD on improving the abiotic stress tolerance in crop species. Subsequently, I worked for 2,5 years at Biogazelle which is a Contract Research Organization (CRO) specializing in DNA- and RNA-based applications to support pharmaceutical research, clinical trials and diagnostic test development. As a scientist I provided scientific guidance to ongoing projects and R&D activities. Currently, I work as a postdoctoral researcher on the use of AI/Machine Learning in plant breeding on the BREEDIT project.

My research interests focus on the ecological and evolutionary significance of polyploid (as well as Whole Genome Duplication, WGD). There is a large body of literature depicting the functional and evolutionary innovation and potential conferred by WGD, while some report that WGD could be detrimental and deadly. The debate of the ecological and evolutionary significance of polyploidy suggests that the consequence of being a polyploid largely depends on the ecological condition that the polyploid is inhabiting and coping with. Recent studies show that there is a nonrandom pattern of WGD occurence across the evolutionary timeline of diverse species, for example a recent research elucidated that a wave of successful genome duplications is associated with the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary in the analysis of 41 plant genomes. The association between WGD and massive extinction events (glaciation events, etc.) provides strong evidence that WGD is an important evolutionary force for survival and success, especially in extreme environments. For now, the confirmed association reported in literature is quite limited in taxa sampling and reliability. I'm trying to build a reliable WGD dating system to explore connections between WGD and massive extinction events in more lineages (mainly angiosperms). The commonness of WGD accumulating around the boundary of massive extinction events across the tree of life would be a powerful argument for the selective advantage of WGD in harsh environments.

Lab manager

Robin Pottie graduated in 2017 as Bachelor in Biomedical Laboratory Technology at Odisee Technologycampus Gent. During his bachelor, he worked on a project for Dr. Simon Stael developing genetic and chemical tools to alter the calcium flux in chloroplasts. Afterwards he joined the Van Breusegem lab as a technician and later as lab manager. His main objectives are the support of the lab in general logistics, knowledge transfer, high throughput screens and proof of concept experiments.

The tissue specific responses of roots to cytokinin

Max used single-cell RNA-sequencing to examine the tissue-specific responses of the Arabidopsis thaliana root to cytokinin application. He aimed to leverage the single-cell data to identify and characterize novel tissue-specific enactors of cytokinin function in the root vascular tissues, and identify tissue-specific DNA binding motifs associated with up- or downregulation of gene expression downstream of cytokinin signalling.