Ykä Helariutta is Professor of Plant Developmental Biology at the University of Cambridge and University of Helsinki. His research group is interested in molecular mechanisms governing the morphogenesis and functionality of vascular tissues, with an emphasis on phloem. Phloem is the conductive tissue that transports various organic molecules from the green source tissues to non-green sink tissues, such as grains, fruits and vegetables. The conductive cell type of phloem is the sieve element, an enucleate living cell with various ultrastructural adaptations that facilitate molecular transport. Sieve element is surrounded by other functionally important cell types, which together complete the long-distance transport function specifying further downstream processes in the sink tissues. Ykä is currently in the process of extending his research interest from the pure developmental basis of vascular tissues to also their function in coordinating development and growth of the various organs. This involves developing new source-sink models in Arabidopsis. Source-to-sink transport | Phloem development | Arabidopsis

Dr. Ari Pekka Mahönen is a Professor in Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His group is studying secondary growth using Arabidopsis root as a primary model. Focus on his lab is to study the molecular mechanism by which the stem cells of the vascular cambium regulate the production of secondary xylem and phloem. Recently his group has extended their studies on cambium development to trunks of a tree species (hybrid aspen) and storage roots of a crop species (cassava). The long-term aim is to understand the difference in genetic regulation between these three different variants of secondary growth.

Donghwi Ko is a Postdoc in Ykä Helariutta’s group at the Sainsbury laboratory, University of Cambridge. He is investigating molecular mechanism underlying secondary growth crucial for storage organ morphogenesis in plants. He is particularly interested in signalling molecules and their downstream targets involved in cell proliferation. Storage organ development | Signalling molecules |Transcriptional and translation regulation

Munan Lyu is a PhD student in Professor Ari Pekka Mähönen’s research group at the University of Helsinki. Her work focuses on unravelling the dynamics of secondary growth and the molecular mechanisms underlying this developmental process, using single-cell transcriptomics and other molecular techniques. She is also expanding this research to explore secondary growth in the storage organs of crop species, including cassava.