Nuclear calcium signalling: lesson from land plants

About the lecturer

Myriam Charpentier is a plant molecular biologist whose research explores how plant cell nuclei process environmental stimuli to orchestrate nuclear

calcium signalling. She completed her MSc in Plant Genetics and Biotechnology at the University of Paris VII, France, followed by a PhD in Plant Genetics and Molecular Biology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.

She undertook her postdoctoral research at the John Innes Centre (JIC) in Norwich, UK. In 2017, she was awarded a BBSRC–David Phillips Fellowship, which enabled her to establish her research group at JIC. She was appointed to a tenure-track position at JIC in 2019, achieved full tenure in 2022, and was promoted to Professor in 2025.

Prof. Charpentier’s research has led to major advances in understanding the molecular basis and evolution of nuclear calcium signalling in plants. Key discoveries include the evolutionary origins of these pathways across land plants, their role in root development, and the mechanisms controlling oscillatory signalling. This research established that calcium oscillation frequency encodes signalling specificity and demonstrated that engineering these pathways enhances endosymbiosis, enabling translation to crops such as wheat to improve nutrient acquisition and reduce reliance on fertilisers.