For the first time, the Plant Biology Lectures series was held in Rosario, organized by researchers from the Center for Photosynthetic and Biochemical Studies (CEFOBI).
Corina Fusari and Nicolás Blanco, researchers at CEFOBI, along with five other researchers from institutes in Santa Fe (Carlos Figueroa, IAL) and Buenos Aires (Ezequiel Petrillo, Julieta Mateos, María José Iglesias, IFIBYNE, and María Eugenia Segretin, INGEBI), organized the second edition of the iconic Plant Biology Lectures , held from October 16–18, 2024, in Rosario.
The conference was mainly funded by the Max Planck Society, the ICGEB, and the Santa Fe Agency for Science, Technology, and Innovation.
The event was held at the Centro Cultural Parque de España and featured nine keynote lectures delivered by renowned experts: Prof. Ralph Bock (Max Planck Institute, Germany), Prof. Tamar Avin-Wittenberg (MPI alumna, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Dr. Franziska Fichtner (MPI alumna, junior group leader, University of Düsseldorf, Germany), Prof. Pilar Cubas (National Center of Biotechnology, Spain), Dr. Sophien Kamoun (The Sainsbury Laboratory, United Kingdom), and Dr. Jitendra Thakur (ICGEB Center, New Delhi, India). These lectures covered various aspects of plant biology, including Biotechnology and Organelle Evolution, Plant Development, Transcriptional Regulation, Metabolism and Signaling, and the Plant Immune System.
Local speakers also presented, expanding on these topics by sharing their research on maize evolution and conservation (Prof. Verónica Lia), root growth regulation in challenging environments (Dr. José Estévez), and translational work on non-coding RNAs: from the lab to the start-up (Dr. Federico Ariel). Additionally, the PBL 2024 Series featured two roundtable discussions. One was chaired by local researcher Dr. Gabriela Auge, who moderated a debate with members of editorial boards of scientific journals about access to publication in the Global South. The other roundtable was led by beneficiaries or alumni of various international programs (ICGEB, DAAD, UNR, CEPLAS, MPI), who invited PhD students and postdocs to explore potential career paths and opportunities for scientific stays abroad.
The conference also included two sessions of six flash-talks each, aimed at encouraging PhD and postdoc students to present their results publicly.
The PBL took place entirely in English to encourage the exchange of ideas with foreign researchers. It was three days of enriching encounters and discussions, fun, and camaraderie.