From Cell Wall State to Cellular Decisions: Early decoding of mechanochemical cues
11/09/2026
The plant cell wall is not a passive box around the cell but a structure the cell reads. Because it is a composite material, its chemistry, mechanics, and structure are not three separate properties but three views of a single mechanochemical state, continuously edited as cells grow, differentiate, and respond to their environment. This has consequences for how we study it: a measurement that isolates one property characterises a phase rather than a wall, and a single time point misses the editing itself. It also has consequences for how we think about signalling. Diverse perturbations of the wall converge on a common set of downstream responses, which leaves open the question of how distinct outcomes arise at all. In this talk, I will present different examples of how cell wall changes that appear similar can carry two different messages. Specificity may therefore reside in the integrated state of the wall rather than in composition, receptor identity, or damage magnitude alone. I will develop this view and its methodological demands, and use it to argue for a new frame for cell wall mediated signaling: that wall changes can be treated as a language, encoded by a cell reporting its own state and decoded by the cell that responds, whose response then rewrites the message.
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The dual use research dilemma: biotechnology and bioterrorism
28/05/2026
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Using organoids to reveal human specific neurobiology
27/05/2026
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Target Discovery for immune mediated diseases in the era of Agentic AI
27/05/2026
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From Lab to Startup: Opportunities and Challenges in Scientific Entrepreneurship
15/05/2026
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Research Integrity in the Age of Generative AI: Promises and Pitfalls
08/05/2026
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Bacteria mediated histone modifications in health and disease
29/04/2026
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Dissecting RNA and protein dysregulation in human disease using high-resolution omics
20/04/2026
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Structure-Function relationships & mechanisms of membrane trafficking of transporters - part 2
31/03/2026
In these two lectures, Prof. George Diallinas will present how the model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans has developed to be an excellent genetic and cell biology system for studying aspects of transporters, such as structure-function relationships, substrate specificity, evolution and subcellular trafficking.
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Structure-Function relationships & mechanisms of membrane trafficking of transporters - part 1
30/03/2026
In these two lectures, Prof. George Diallinas will present how the model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans has developed to be an excellent genetic and cell biology system for studying aspects of transporters, such as structure-function relationships, substrate specificity, evolution and subcellular trafficking.
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