Dorota Kawa

Dorota Kawa is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, specializing in Plant Stress Resilience and Experimental and Computational Plant Development. Her research focuses on plant-microbiome interactions, root development under stress, and bioinformatics approaches to enhance crop sustainability.

• Education:
  • PhD in Plant Physiology and Cell Biology (2017, University of Amsterdam)
  • MSc in Plant Biotechnology (2011, Warsaw University of Life Sciences)
  • BSc in Biotechnology (2010, Warsaw University of Life Sciences)

Research Interests span plant adaptation to abiotic stresses, microbiome-driven root cell modifications, and computational modeling of development. She investigates how microbial communities and genetic pathways regulate root metabolomes and cellular traits, particularly under salt and drought stress.

Publication Trends show her work centers on Striga resistance in cereal crops, stress-induced root architecture changes, and microbiome-root interactions. She explores auxin-independent signaling and mRNA decay mechanisms to improve multi-stress resilience.

Teaching includes courses on plant development and research design at Utrecht University. Her work contributes to Pathways to Sustainability and Future Food initiatives.