Prof. dr. Devang Mehta
Originally from India, Devang holds an engineering undergraduate degree in biotechnology, a Masters in systems and synthetic biology from Imperial College London, and a Doctor of Sciences degree from ETH Zurich.
His past research has focused on engineering disease resistance in cassava, inventing a new method for sequencing circular DNA, and most recently, on discovering new aspects of plant chronobiology.
Devang is also an active science communicator, an emerging leader in the Open Science movement, and an advocate for greater equity, diversity, & inclusion in science. He has previously served as an Early Career Advisor to eLife and is a bioRxiv Affiliate.
History:
2022-current: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven (BOFZAP Research Professorship)
2018-2022: Postdoctoral Fellow, Uhrig Lab, University of Alberta (SNSF Postdoc Fellowship)
2014-2018: Dr. Sc. in Plant Biotechnology (Science Policy program), ETH Zurich (Marie Curie IDP-BRIDGES Fellowship)
2012-2013: M. Res. in Systems and Synthetic Biology, Imperial College London (Jubilee Scholarship, The British Council)
2008-2012: B. Tech. in Biotechnology, Vellore Institute of Technology, India
Meet the Team
Zhi-Xing Lau
PhD Student
(2024-present)
Zhi-Xing from Malaysia holds an M.Sc. in Horticultural Crop Science from NTU in Taiwan. From studying the senescence of orchid during his masters, he then focused on studying ribosome biogenesis in Arabidopsis during his time as a researcher at IPMB, Academia Sinica. He is now studying the temporal and functional dynamics of the plant clock interactome.
Clément Barré-Villeneuve
Postdoctoral Researcher (with the Vanderschuren Lab)
(2024–present)
Aisha-Alexandra Gerhardt
PhD Student
(2023–present)
Aisha is a German-Brazilian national who holds an M.Sc in Molecular and Applied Plant Sciences from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. She completed her Master’s thesis at BASF Agricultural Solutions and is currently trying to engineer the plant circadian clock for enhanced latitudinal adaptation.
Kaat Hebbelinck
Lab Manager
(2023–present)
Kaat holds a M.Sc. in Biology from KU Leuven and a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Laboratory Technology from UCLL. She has previously worked in the Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement and is now managing our lab as a lab technician.
Eva Vanden Broeck
Secretary
Eva is our secretary and financial antenna.
This could be you!
Check out our open positions here:
Master Students & Interns
Robbe Beelen , MSc Biology (with Prof. Nico DeStorme)
Vaishnavi Satish Durge, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Cellular & Genetic Engineering (with Prof. Hervé Vanderschuren)
Wout Keymis, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Cellular & Genetic Engineering, KU Leuven
Julie Smets, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Cellular & Genetic Engineering, KU Leuven
Lorien Quaghebeur, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Agriculture, KU Leuven (with Prof. Bram van de Poel)
Collaborators
Past & Present:
Dr. R. Glen Uhrig, University of Alberta, Canada
Prof. Hervé Vanderschuren, KU Leuven/University of Liège, Belgium
Dr. Ting-Ying Wu, Academica Sinica, Taiwan
Prof. Jacquie Bede, McGill University, Canada
Dr. Marek Marzec, University of Silesia, Poland
Dr. Sukalp Muzumdar, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, US
Prof. Nicholas Provart, University of Toronto, Canada
Prof. Bill Plaxton, Queen’s University, Canada
Dr. Johanna Krahmer, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Dr. Pascal Schläpfer, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Dr. Tamzin Blewett, University of Alberta, Canada