Team
Principal Investigator
Dr Bipin Pandey
Plant biologist investigating root-soil interactions, soil compaction, rhizosphere biology, root sensing mechanisms, and sustainable agricultural systems.
University of Nottingham
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr Lucas P. Ogorek
EMBO Long-Term Fellow and MSCA-PF
Dr Lucas León Ogorek obtained his PhD from the University of Copenhagen through the TALENT doctoral fellowship programme co-funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. His doctoral research focused on understanding how root tissues protect plants against abiotic stresses including drought and phytotoxic compounds. During his PhD, he published three first-author papers, including two in New Phytologist and one in Plant and Soil.
Lucas joined the RhizoSensing laboratory in 2023 as an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow. His current research investigates how ethylene, a gaseous plant hormone, moves through root tissues during soil compaction. His expertise in gas biology, including oxygen, hydrogen sulphide, water vapour and volatile signalling molecules, provides a unique platform to study root responses to soil physical stress.
Research interests: Root biology, gaseous signalling, soil compaction, crop resilience, climate adaptation.
Dr Lokesh Verma
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow (MSCA-PF)
Dr Lokesh Verma completed his PhD in Plant Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi. His doctoral work focused on phosphate starvation responses and membrane lipid remodelling in rice. He has extensive expertise in molecular biology, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, plant transformation and lipidomics.
His current research explores mechanosensing, soil physics, root development and plant adaptation to soil compaction stress.
Research interests: Mechanosensing, root development, plant stress biology, molecular genetics, genome editing.
PhD Students
Edward Farrar
BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) Student
Edward graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Plant Science in 2022. His interest in soil compaction biology developed through a Rank Prize Vacation Studentship and subsequent undergraduate research projects investigating the roles of ethylene and jasmonic acid in root responses to soil compaction.
His PhD project, Quantifying New Roles of Jasmonic Acid in Shaping Root Architecture in Compacted Soils, combines molecular genetics with non-invasive X-ray CT imaging and digital root reconstruction to understand how roots sense and respond to soil mechanical constraints.
Research interests: Root architecture, jasmonic acid signalling, soil compaction, X-ray CT imaging, root phenotyping.
Victoria Lightfoot
BBSRC PhD Student
Victoria is investigating mechanisms that regulate root growth and adaptation under challenging soil environments.
Research interests: Root development, cell wall mechanics, root-soil interactions, soil compaction stress adaptation.
Grace Denis
UKRI PhD Student
Grace is studying plant responses to environmental stresses with a focus on below-ground biology and root-soil interactions.
Research interests: Root biology, soil compaction stress responses, spatial meyabolites, rhizosphere processes.
Master’s Students
Samuel Jamieson
MRes Student
Samuel is undertaking research focused on root-soil interactions and experimental approaches for understanding root behaviour in complex soil environments.
Academic Visitors
Prof Lijun An
Academic Visitor
Prof An collaborates with the RhizoSensing group on projects related to root biology, plant stress adaptation and sustainable agriculture.