Samuel C Zeeman is a full professor of Plant Biochemistry at ETH Zurich and head of the Institute of Molecular Plant Biology. His research group studies the pathways and products of plant primary metabolism using a combination of plant molecular genetics, biochemistry and physiological approaches. Sam is particularly recognized for his contribution to the understanding of starch metabolism using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Starch is a fascinating semi-crystalline substance uniquely produced by plants and algae. Work on Arabidopsis has facilitated the discovery of numerous previously unknown proteins that help to control starch synthesis and starch degradation. This field is very important to society since starch is the major nutritional carbohydrate in our diet. As starch metabolism is widely conserved in plants, the results of fundamental research on model systems is highly applicable for the improvement of staple starch crops, including the storage roots of cassava by altering yield and quality. Starch metabolism ꟾ Cassava ꟾ Arabidopsis

Christina Joy Müller is a post-doctoral researcher in the Plant Biochemistry group of Sam Zeeman at ETH Zürich. Her research interests include understanding the function of starch synthase domains during starch granule initiation. For the CASS project, she is applying the most recent discoveries in our understanding of how starch biosynthesis and granule formation occurs to cassava in order to advance our understanding of cassava starch development with the aim to improve starch-quality outcomes.

Simon Bull is a Senior Assistant in the Plant Biochemistry group (Prof. S. Zeeman) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He is also affiliated with the Molecular Plant Breeding group (Prof. B. Studer) at ETH Zurich. His research interests include developing and implementing new plant breeding techniques (e.g. genome editing, fast flowering) in apple and cassava for fundamental research and trait improvement. Within the CASS project, he is investigating starch granule formation to boost our understanding of starch biosynthesis in cassava, and to apply this knowledge to improve starch-quality traits. Cassava | Genome Editing | Starch | Crop Improvement

Dr. Ravi Bodampalli Anjanappa is a senior assistant with Prof. Dr. Sam Zeeman, Plant Biochemistry group (formaly Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Gruissem, Plant Biotechnology group), Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, ETH Zurich. He holds a BSc (Agriculture) and a MSc (Plant Biotechnology) from the University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore, India. He obtained his PhD from the Plant Biotechnology, Department of Biology, ETHZ Zurich, Switzerland. During his PhD, he identified cassava varieties that are resistant to cassava brown streak viruses (CBSVs), and characterized the transcriptome response at an early time point of CBSVs infection to identify virus-host interactions. Ravi is an expert in plant tissue culture and leads the high-throughput cassava transformation pipeline. Besides his interests in producing larger storage roots of cassava, he has an interest in improving carbohydrate storage capacity and increase nutritional value.

Isabel Williams is a Doctoral Student in the Plant Biochemistry Group (Prof. S. Zeeman) at ETH Zürich. She aims to understand the molecular mechanism of starch granule formation in cassava with a view to improve starch-quality traits, building on previous research in Arabidopsis thaliana by the Plant Biochemistry Group. The CASS project is especially exciting for her due to its applied nature and collaborative effort to address global food insecurity, which she regards as one of the most pressing challenges facing the modern world.