Klaudia Ordyniak wins Best Poster Award at SPPS PhD Student Conference 2025

We are proud to announce that PhD student Klaudia Ordyniak from the Plant Cell Wall Dynamics lab has been awarded the Best Poster Award at the SPPS PhD Student Conference 2025, hosted by the Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society. The meeting brought together PhD students from across the Nordic region, creating a vibrant atmosphere to exchange ideas and showcase cutting-edge plant science.

Klaudia’s poster, “Stress-Proofing Plants: The Role of ZAT11 & ZAT18 in Cell Wall Defense”, told the story of two transcription factors, ZAT11 and ZAT18, as central players in the cell wall integrity (CWI) pathway. Her work revealed that these transcription factors do not act in isolation: they regulate each other’s expression and influence the activity of the CWI receptor THESEUS1, a key node in translating wall damage into cellular responses. By combining RNA-seq data, mutant analysis, and stress assays, she showed how ZAT11 and ZAT18 respond differently to stresses such as salt and cellulose inhibition, offering new insight into how plants fine-tune their defences while maintaining growth.

The award is a well-deserved recognition of Klaudia’s dedication and creativity, and we are truly proud of her achievement. It was also a good day for UPSC as a whole, with Julie Ducla, from Peter Marhavy's lab, receiving the Best Presentation Award. Moments like these remind us of the strength and talent within our research community.