Dr. Ronan Sulpice

Group Leader

Plants and more generally all photosynthetic organisms fascinate me since I am a kid. Understanding how they adapt their environment and identifying major mechanisms involved, with the aim at harnessing this knowledge to develop a more sustainable plant based food production has become the main aim of our laboratory.

After graduating in the University of Rennes (France) as a Plant Biochemist / physiologist in 2000, I moved to Japan to continue studying the response of land plants to stresses. Then I moved to the Technical University of Munich, and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology where I stayed nine years before joining the University of Galway. During my career, my interests have focused at elucidating in photosynthetic organisms the cross talk between metabolism and growth, with special emphasis at how environmental cues modulate them.

To answer this question, our lab has developed state of the art technologies for phenotyping, metabolite profiling and molecular studies. Currently we are working at understanding the role of the rhizosphere in promoting plant health, using coffee as a model plant. As well, till now six years, a large part of our lab is working on seaweeds, as we see them as potential key players in mitigating climate change effects, while helping as well with other sustainable goals such as hunger. As such, we aim at understanding how seaweeds are functioning at physiological and molecular levels, towards supporting seaweed breeding programmes for aquaculture and bioremediation, as well as predicting potential changes in ocean biodiversity due to climate change.

ronan.sulpice@universityofgalway.ie

Dr. Marcus McHale

BOLERO Project

I currently focus on bioinformatics, data engineering and software development in BOLERO, a Horizon 2020 program studying coffee tree root systems and microbial interactions. My career started in molecular biology, with the application of genetic markers to monitoring fish and marine mammal species at the University of Queensland, Australia. A fascination with genetic interactions and plant systems led me to complete a PhD at Sydney University, examining epigenetic responses to transgenes in plants. I won a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2014 and joined the University of Galway to apply my knowledge and experience to crop improvement. I stayed on, joining Dr. Sulpice’s team in BreedCAFS, a Horizon 2020 program developing improved coffee varieties for agroforestry systems. Within this project I spent two years in Germany, training in bioinformatics with Prof. Usadel at RWTH Aachen, and in modeling with Prof. Nikoloski at University of Potsdam and Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology. I have contributed to diverse other projects while with the Plant Systems Biology Lab, including studies of perennial ryegrass metabolism and sea-lettuce (Ulva) genetic improvement.

marcus.mchale@universityofgalway.ie

Dr. Serena Rosignoli

MSCA Research Fellow, NITROGENIOUS Project

I am interested in dissecting the genetic control of traits related to a better, more stable and sustainable crop production. I completed my PhD in Agricultural Genetics at the University of Bologna, Italy, where I investigated the control of traits for the improvement of shoot and root architecture in barley. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Sulpice lab, I published the first draft genome of Palmaria palmata. My current project focuses on the genetics and metabolism of nitrogen in Ulva compressa at different temperatures, using mutagenesis, 15N metabolic flux analysis with LC-MS detection, and high throughput phenotyping.

serena.rosignoli@universityofgalway.ie

Dr. Anahita Shariat

Postdoctoral Researcher, BOLERO Project

During recent years, my deep involvement in the research field has ignited a profound passion for exploring molecular genetics, cytogenetics, metabolomics, ionomics, and phenomics in plant species. This engagement has allowed me to delve into various aspects of plant science, examining physiological, phytochemical, anatomical, and morphological traits. Through this comprehensive approach, I have developed a holistic understanding of how these traits interact and contribute to the complex biology of plants, driving my commitment to advancing knowledge in this fascinating area of study. In 2015, I received my PhD in plant breeding and molecular genetics from Tarbiat Modares University in Iran. Before and after completing my Ph.D., I worked as a researcher at the Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands in Iran. In 2023, I joined the Sulpice Lab as a postdoctoral researcher on the BOLERO project. My current research involves identifying metabolic interactions between coffee plants and their microbiome using advanced 13CO2 labelling technology.

anahita.shariat@universityofgalway.ie

Dr. Farhana Bibi

Postdoctoral Researcher, SeaMark Project

My research interests span a variety of topics including the development of understandings about algal metabolism, genetic, physiological and biochemical characterization and development of value-added products from algae. After completion of my PhD from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, in biochemical engineering of algae for desired characteristics, I served in the private academic and research organizations for two years in Pakistan. I joined the Sulpice Lab in 2024 as a postdoctoral researcher in EU Horizon funded project, SeaMark, to genotype and phenotype the elite Ulva spp. strains. This research will lead to the development and evaluation of the novel tools for obtention of elite Ulva strains for the purposes of aquaculture and bioremediation.

farhana.bibi@universityofgalway.ie

Dr. Enrique Zepeda Lupio

Postdoctoral Researcher, ASPIRE Project

As an aquaculture engineer, I have a strong enthusiasm for algae and the development of cultivation systems aimed at producing bioactive compounds. My research interests focus on exploring and comprehending the physicochemical factors that influence the synthesis of commercially valuable metabolites, as well as the physiological responses of algae -particularly those related to light. During my PhD in Marine Sciences at Cinvestav, Mexico, I also dedicated my efforts to identifying transcriptional changes and specific signal transduction pathways involved in antioxidant production in algae. In April 2025, I joined Ronan’s Sulpice Plant System Biology Lab as a postdoctoral researcher. My current work involves evaluating and selecting high-performance Palmaria palmata strains by assessing biomass quality, growth performance and metabolite synthesis. This research is complemented by the use of molecular genetics tools for the identification of genetic markers to select best performing strains.

enrique.zepedalupio@universityofgalway.ie

Artem  Zharikov

Research Assistant

I have more than 10 years of experience in the development of targeted and untargeted mass spectrometry (MS)-based and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based methods for the analysis of a wide range of compounds and metabolites, such as fatty acids, amino acids, phenolics, and other metabolites, in various matrices, including plants, food, human and animal biofluids.

I received my Master’s degree in Chemical Technology from the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia in 2017, where I focused on the analysis of synthetic cannabinoids in urine. After years of working in mass spectrometry laboratories, I joined the Sulpice lab in 2023 as a Research Assistant. My project involves sampling root exudates, extracting metabolites from rhizosphere soil, plant tissues, and developing highly sensitive LC/MS methods for high-throughput untargeted and targeted workflows in coffee plants. I also perform data analysis using software such as MSDIAL, MZmine, GNPS, etc.

artem.zharikov@universityofgalway.ie

Past lab members