Van de Poel Lab
Welcome to the website of the Van de Poel lab.
We are a plant science lab, affiliated with the University of Leuven, focusing on plant hormone physiology, with a special interest in ethylene. We also perform translational research on innovations in horticulture. We use molecular genetics, biochemical and physiological experiments to perform basic and applied research in the emerging fields of horticulture and agriculture.
News
Congratulations to Luka Verhaeren for obtaining an FWO doctoral fellowship grant.
The new KU Leuven greenhouse has officially opened its doors. It will function as a core facility, facilitating plenty of advanced plant research!
We are participating in the new Interreg VL-NL project "GreenSense" to develop new sensor technology for horticulture.
New equipment:
An Olympus microscope will help us analyze plants up close from new angles.
New paper
Van der Jeucht L., Rosiers E., Huysmans M., Moelants J., De Waegenaere R., Hinderijckx A., Renders F., Arslan Turgay J., Wittemans L., Bosmans- L., Van de Poel B. (2026).Benefits of supplemental far-red light for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) greenhouse production and assimilation are negligible, Scientia Horticulturae, Volume 366,115044, ISSN 0304-4238, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2026.115044.
New paper
Geldhof B., Pattyn J., Volkaert L., Mohorović P., Van den Broeck k., Everaerts V., Novák O., Bram Van de Poel B. (2026) Leaf ontogeny steers ethylene and auxin crosstalk to regulate leaf epinasty during waterlogging of tomato, Plant Stress, Volume 22, 101423, ISSN 2667-064X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stress.2026.101423.
LATEST PAPERS
LATEST RESEARCH
In the Interreg project GreenSense, we are validating our new plant movement sensor as a digital tool to assist growers in their greenhouse crop production. Together with AI-experts we are developing predictive models to enable early stress detection to optimize growth and production.
We use Marchantia polymorpha to study the origin and evolution of the plant hormone ethylene and it's precursor ACC. We are aiming to figure out how non-seed plants produce, sense and respond to ethylene and ACC.
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