SLU’s first research grant from the European Research Council

The starting grants are awarded to excellent young researchers with the potential to become world leading in their research fields. So far 480 out of 4080 applicants in this year´s Starting Grant call have received funding. Claudia Köhler is the first SLU researcher to receive an ERC grant.

Claudia Köhler is a professor in molecular plant cell biology at Uppsala BioCenter at SLU since October 2010, and she was previously working at the ETH Zürich in Switzerland. Her special interest concerns the genetics of seed development.

– I have received approximately 1.5 million Euros in total for five years, says Claudia Köhler. My research investigates the driving forces behind an evolutionary process called polyploidization, the reason why so many of our cultivated crop plants have more than the original number of chromosome sets. I want to explore the obstacles that prevent crosses between plant species with different ploidy – it is for example very difficult to transfer valuable traits from wild diploid plants to polyploid relatives among agricultural plants.

More information

Professor Claudia Köhler
Dept of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, SLU, Uppsala
018-67 33 13, Claudia.Kohler@slu.se
http://www.slu.se/en/faculties/nl/about-the-faculty/departments/department-of-plant-biology-and-and-forest-genetics/research/groups/claudia-kohler/   
 
Press release from the ERC
http://erc.europa.eu/pdf/press_release_stg2011_results.pdf

Previous press release from SLU on Claudia Köhler’s research (2011-08-09)
http://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/fristaende-sidor-eng/whats-on/news/2011/8/seed-size-determined-in-a-parental-tug-of-war/

Press images (may be published without charge in articles about this press release, the name of the photographer should be stated):

Professor Claudia Köhler, SLU. Portait and in the lab with members of her research group. Photo: Jenny Svennås-Gillner