Lab Members
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Leonie Luginbuehl
Group Leader
Leonie did her PhD at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, where she investigated the role of GRAS-domain transcription factors in reprogramming roots during the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. Her work identified a lipid biosynthesis and export pathway that provides AM fungi with fixed carbon. As a Herchel Smith Fellow at the Department of Plant Sciences in Cambridge, she studied the cell type specific regulation of photosynthesis gene expression in leaves of C3 and C4 plants using single cell sequencing approaches. In September 2022, she started her own group as an Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge.
Lee Cackett
Postdoctoral Researcher
Lee got her PhD in 2020 from the University of Cape Town, where she studied the molecular mechanisms behind the ionic component of salinity stress in plants. She then joined Julian Hibberds’ lab as a postdoc where she explored chloroplast development in rice bundle sheath cells. Lee is now a postdoc in the Luginbuehl group where she is working to understand how carbon metabolism is controlled in rice shoot and root during AM symbiosis, with the aim to optimise carbon allocation to AM fungi for improved colonisation and thus nutrient transfer, plant growth, and yield.
Isobel Magrath
PhD student
Isobel did her undergrad degree at the University of Syndey and the Australian National University. She worked as a research assistant in Caitlin Byrt's lab at ANU for a few years, investigating the various functions of plant aquaporins, before coming to Cambridge for a PhD. In her PhD, Isobel studies how carbon is allocated to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi by the model legume, Medicago truncatula.
Leo Li
Master's student
Leo obtained his BSc degree from the University of Cambridge and joined the Luginbuehl lab as a Master's student. He wants to understand how carbon provision from the plant to AM fungi is achieved during symbiosis and how this is regulated by nutrient uptake from the AM fungi. Additionally, he investigates the epistasis between carbon provision and the control of symbiosis development. In his free time, Leo thinks about mycorrhizae, grows crassulacean acid metabolism plants, learns languages, plays chess, and dreams about travelling around the world (and sometimes, he does travel).
Bertie Titley
Part II student
Bertie is a third-year Natural Sciences student at the University of Cambridge. He joined the Luginbuehl lab to carry out his Part II research project, investigating whether carbon allocation to AM fungi and in return symbiotic nutrient uptake can be increased in the model crop rice.