Ulrike Bechtold

Dr Ulrike Bechtold is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences at Durham University, specializing in plant stress responses with a focus on drought and heat. Her research integrates molecular, genomic, and evolutionary approaches to understand stress signaling pathways and water use efficiency in plants. She holds a PhD from the John Innes Centre (UK) and has held academic positions at the University of Essex before joining Durham in 2022.

Education:

• PhD in Plant Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK (1998)
• Bachelor's/Master's in Biology, University of Giessen, Germany

Research Interests:

• Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of stress responses
• Evolutionary genomics of plant water-use traits
• Comparative genomics of stress-related genes
• Development of water use proxy traits in Brassica crops

Funding & Collaboration:

• Lead PI on Leverhulme Trust project (£237k) on stress-regulated protein synthesis
• Co-Applicant on EU Interreg project (€340k) for high-density hydroponics
• Recipient of Newton Fund grants for India-UK collaborative research

Lab Activities:

• Focus on plant-water relations and stress adaptation
• Developing genomic resources for drought-tolerant crops
• Investigating evolutionary drivers of stress-related gene innovations