Contact
Email: victoria.spencer(at)gmi.oeaw.ac.at
Telephone: +43 1 79044
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9930-1377
FORMER AND CURRENT POSITIONS
since 2023 - Postdoctoral Fellow in the Dolan Group
2019-2023 - Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bristol, UK
2014-2018 - PhD at the University of Manchester, UK
Academic Honors and Awards
2024 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship
2014 BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership Award
Research Projects
The regulation and diversification of plant branching architecture:
Branching architecture is a consequence of the activity and generation of self-renewing centres known as meristems. Despite their fundamental importance for body plan development, very little is known about how meristems are regulated in major plant lineages such as bryophytes. To determine the diversity of meristem structure and regulation in land plants, I am characterising the anatomy and gene expression profile of the mature meristem in the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha. I am also comparing the gene expression profiles of active and inactive meristems of M. polymorpha plants grown in shade, to identify novel regulators of meristem activity.
Research interests
The arrangement and geometry of branches on a plant define its overall 3D architecture. These branching patterns are genetically determined by complex signalling networks between neighbouring and distant cells, which are fine-tuned by the external environment. The aim of my research is to identify the fundamental mechanisms that govern branching patterns in land plants, and how architectural diversity has arisen from modifications to these regulatory processes.