Charlotte Gommers

Dr. Charlotte Gommers is an Assistant Professor in Plant Physiology at Wageningen University & Research, specializing in chloroplast-mediated environmental stress signaling. She investigates how chloroplasts perceive and respond to abiotic stresses like salinity and light changes, leveraging retrograde signaling pathways to influence plant development and stress tolerance. Her research bridges molecular mechanisms and whole-plant adaptation strategies.

Education & Career: Charlotte holds a PhD from Utrecht University (supervised by Ronald Pierik) and conducted postdoctoral research at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG, Barcelona) under Elena Monte. She joined Wageningen in 2019 as an Assistant Professor.

Teaching & Leadership: She coordinates and teaches courses such as Molecular Concepts of Plant Resilience (PPH30306) and Plant Plasticity & Adaptation (PPH30806). Her teaching focuses on integrating molecular biology with plant resilience and environmental interactions.

Research Highlights:

• Uncovered ABA's role in salt stress responses in roots (PNAS, 2025).
• Pioneered studies on chloroplast retrograde signaling coordinating stress and development (Plant Cell & Environment, 2025).
• Explores organelle-nucleus communication in stress adaptation and developmental plasticity.

Lab & Collaborations: Her team is part of the Laboratory of Plant Physiology, collaborating on projects like the ERC-funded 'Cytoplasmic Inheritance in Plants' and investigating stress resilience mechanisms. She actively recruits researchers and educators in plant molecular biology.