Van Dijck Lara

Career path

Lara obtained her Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from Ghent University in 2021, where she completed her Master’s thesis in the group of Prof. Anne Willems (Laboratory of Microbiology). After a 6 month internship in the biotic stress group at KWS (Germany), she joined the group of Prof. Jane Parker in April 2022 at the department of Prof. Paul Schulze-Lefert in the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne. As part of the DFG Priority Programme DECRyPT_2125, her PhD research focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying plant iron nutrition, centred on the interplay between plant roots-derived coumarins and fungal endophytes. She obtained her PhD degree in October 2025. Since 2026, Lara is a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Sofie Goormachtig (VIB–UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology). Her current research explores innovative strategies to strengthen legume–rhizobium symbioses. This includes the development of plant signalling molecules derived from poultry proteins as seed treatments to enhance nitrogen fixation in crops such as soybean, in collaboration with the company STAMAGRO.