Prof. dr. Devang Mehta

Originally from India, Devang’s past research has focused on engineering disease resistance in cassava, inventing a new method for sequencing circular DNA, developing a new mass-spectrometry proteomics method, 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), 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

Julia Zalder

PhD Student
(2024-present)

Julia is a German-Polish national and holds an MSc in Biotechnology from the University of Münster. She focused on phytopathology and applied research in pest management in her master thesis. After graduation, she completed an internship at KWS, where she worked on biotic stress resistance in sugar beet. She is now working on energy-efficient and nature-inspired lighting strategies for greenhouses and is a joint PhD with the lab of Prof. Bram Van de Poel.

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.

Dr.Clément Barré-Villeneuve

Postdoctoral Researcher
(2024–present)

Clément holds a PhD from the University of Perpignan in France and is a joint postdoctoral researcher with the Vanderschuren Lab at KU Leuven.

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

Arnaud Vercruysse, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Cellular & Genetic Engineering

Prerona Chatterjee, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Cellular & Genetic Engineering

Julie Groothaert, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Cellular & Genetic Engineering, KU Leuven

William Verdonck, MSc Bioscience Engineering: Cellular & Genetic Engineering, KU Leuven (with Prof. Hervé Vanderschuren)

Collaborators

Past & Present:

  • Prof. R. Glen Uhrig, University of Alberta, Canada

  • Prof. Hervé Vanderschuren, KU Leuven/University of Liège, Belgium

  • Prof. Bram Van de Poel, KU Leuven, Belgium

  • Dr. Ting-Ying Wu, Academica Sinica, Taiwan

  • Prof. Jacquie Bede, McGill University, Canada

  • The Plant Cell Atlas Consortium

  • 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

Alumni

2023-2024

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)