I had been on secondment at North Carolina State University, at Prof.
Ross Sozzani’s lab, where talented scientists work for maximizing the
utility of plants to face global challenges, such as climate change,
scarcity of arable land and the increasing need of sustainable energy.
To achieve this goal, they focus on understanding the mechanisms that
allow the organization and maintenance of plant stem cells at the
systems-level.
During my secondment I had the opportunity to see and learn cutting-
edge methods and technologies in the field.
I learned how to handle and analyze transcriptomic data and I also took
advantage of machine learning-based approaches to predict gene
regulatory interactions in my plant organ of interest: Arabidopsis
thaliana ovule. Indeed, I exploited several bioinformatics approaches to
better dissect molecular mechanisms and biological processes involved
in ovule development and female germline differentiation and
progression.
