Daria Bugakova, PhD joined the team as a Postdoctoral reseacher

Daria Bugakova owns a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Twente (BIOS Lab-on-a-chip group, 2025). In her thesis, she explored the mechanobiology of single plant cells – protoplasts. Her main focus was the design and fabrication of a microfluidic system for compressive stress application. She has performed the compression of single plant protoplasts in a well-controlled microfluidic environment, without the interfering influence of other important factors (chemicals, temperature, light conditions, etc). She has shown, that single plant cells divide faster and in higher numbers under stress, comparing to control cells. That finding can help to understand the complex mechanobiology of single plant cells and guide towards a path for regeneration of plant species, that do not regenerate under normal conditions.

During her Postdoctoral research, Daria will continue working with plants and will work together with Tom van den Berg, Paul ter Braak and David Fernandez Rivas (PlantBeams) on ERC Proof-of-concept “Plant-a-jet” to revolutionize gene editing in crops.

PlantBeams team has also recently been granted the Biotech Booster program grant, which will help the team to explore the business opportunities for the project, as well as perform the preliminary market research.