Joop Vermeer has been Full Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Neuchâtel since 2019. His research focuses on understanding how regulated volume loss and mechanical forces together regulate organogenesis. The lab uses lateral root formation as a model to better understand how cells communicate to accommodate newly formed organs. Osmotically driven turgor pressure of plant cells can be higher than that of a car tire. It puts tremendous forces onto cell walls and drives changes in cell shape. This has given rise to unique mechanisms to control organ formation in comparison to metazoans. The fascinating interplay between forces and local cellular reorganization is poorly understood.
Graduating with a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Amsterdam (UvA-Amsterdam, NL) in 2006, he carried out a post-doc in the group of Teun Munnik at the same institute to use genetically encoded biosensors to reveal the dynamics and roles of phospholipids during plant growth and development. This work revealed the intricate dynamics of different phospholipid species during several developmental processes.
He then was awarded a Marie-Curie Fellowship to join the laboratory of Niko Geldner at the University of Lausanne to study the role of the lignified Casparian strip during lateral root formation. It was during this time that he developed the concept of spatial accommodating, discovering an important role for inter cell layer communication during lateral root formation in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Subsequently, he was awarded a SNF Professorship to set up his own group in the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Zurich. Here his group continued to study spatial accommodating responses during lateral root formation, revealing important roles of cytoskeleton dynamics and organization during this process.
In August 2019 he was appointed Full Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the institute of Biology, where his laboratory continues to explore spatial accommodating responses. However, at UniNE his laboratory is now also investigating lateral root development in other species such as Brachypodium distachyon and Cardamine hirsuta.