Eliza Loo

Dr. Eliza Loo is a Postdoctoral Researcher (Research Fellow) at the Institute of Molecular Physiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, and has been affiliated with CEPLAS (Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences) since 2019. She operates within the university's molecular physiology research ecosystem while contributing to CEPLAS's interdisciplinary plant science initiatives.

Her research centers on plant-microbe symbiosis, specifically investigating how plants control carbon exudation (up to 20% of fixed carbon) to nourish root-associated microbiota. This work integrates plant physiology, microbial ecology, and metabolic network analysis to uncover molecular mechanisms governing plant-soil interactions. Dr. Loo advocates for transdisciplinary approaches, emphasizing how biology, chemistry, and physics must converge to explain complex biological phenomena. Her focus on metabolic networks between plants and microbes aligns with CEPLAS Research Area 2 on soil adaptation mechanisms.

As part of CEPLAS, she contributes to collaborative projects spanning plant performance optimization, synthetic biology, and theoretical plant sciences. Her work leverages the cluster's technology platforms including plant metabolism/metabolomics and imaging facilities to decode plant-microbe communication systems.