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Marc Somssich

@somssich

Plant Scientist R&D Trait Program Manager (Biotic Stress) @KWSGroup.bsky.social Web: https://linktr.ee/somssich Personal Account

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Latest posts by Marc Somssich @somssich

This goes for Chemistry too.

***Publish in society journals***
not journals by for-profit publishers!

There are so many great ACS and RSC journals. They have name recognition and they are run by actual scientists who care about publishing quality work. Even if you need OA they are way cheaper.

06.03.2026 11:59 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

...the money you pay society journals to publish at least partially goes into conference costs, fellowships, workshops, seminar series, community projects like Plantae, preLights, etc.

These are two strange arguments. How are society journals not the clearly better option here?

#SciPub

06.03.2026 10:34 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Circa the same price? Which society journal charges $12850 (Nature) or $7350 (NatureComs)?
Where the money goes? In case of Springer Nature & Elsevier it goes straight into their own pockets - 40% profit margins - higher than Google, Microsoft... nothing is coming back to scientists, community...

06.03.2026 10:34 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Have you ever heard of Fanny AnΒ­gelina Hesse? by Corrado Nai β€” A graphic novel about this forgotten woman in science is on its way – but it's unlikely to make an impact without the strong support from the microbiology community. If you have n…

And a follow-up regarding #WomanInSTEM Fanny Angelina Hesse:

Have you ever heard of Fanny Angelina Hesse?
smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2...

06.03.2026 08:57 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Have you ever heard of Fanny AnΒ­gelina Hesse? by Corrado Nai β€” A graphic novel about this forgotten woman in science is on its way – but it's unlikely to make an impact without the strong support from the microbiology community. If you have n…

And a follow-up regarding #WomanInSTEM Fanny Angelina Hesse:

Have you ever heard of Fanny Angelina Hesse?
smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2...

06.03.2026 08:57 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The Origins of Agar First introduced into laboratories in 1881, agar remains indispensable as a culture medium.

Another really interesting #SciHis Story by @asimovpress.bsky.social.

Goes to show that there are interesting and curious stories and facts in everything - even little things like Agar that seem simple and straightforward.
www.asimov.press/p/agar

#ScienceHistory #MolecularBiology #Agarose #Seaweed

06.03.2026 08:53 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

This should be super helpful for anybody working on #PlantCellWalls, particularly #Cellulose.

A step-by-step guide for quantitative(!) live-imaging of cellulose synthesis in planta.

#PlantScience #PlantMicroscopy #QuantitativeImaging #Bioimaging #PlantDevelopment

πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡

06.03.2026 07:10 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Europe Can’t Afford to Fall Behind: Jessica PolfjΓ€rd on the EU’s NGT Turning Point Europe’s new agreement on New Genomic Techniques marks a turning point for plant breeding and seed innovation. Led by MEP Jessica PolfjΓ€rd, the NGT dossier balanced science, politics, and national int...

β€œWe can’t afford to fall behind.”
MEP Jessica PolfjΓ€rd speaks with @seedworldeu.bsky.social about steering the EU’s #NGT negotiations and why science and innovation are essential for Europe to tackle food and climate challenges πŸ‘
www.seedworld.com/europe/2026/...

05.03.2026 12:26 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Fantastic πŸ‘

04.03.2026 13:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Can they write a script to track the tip?

04.03.2026 13:16 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸš€ Now in press at Bio-protocol! bio-protocol.org/e5634

Grounded in years of hands-on experience πŸ‘‹, our protocol covers imaging cellulose synthases πŸ”¬ from sample prep 🌱 to reproducible quantification πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» β€” transferable to other fluorescent markers too ♻️.
@unipotsdam.bsky.social
@crc1644.bsky.social

04.03.2026 12:16 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

1/ ✨ New preprint alert ✨

It is my pleasure to share:
"Stepwise evolution of the developmental and symbiotic functions of DELLA in land plants"

Here we investigated the role of the single GRAS transcription factor DELLA in #MyMarchantia

doi.org/10.64898/202...

#PlantScience
A thread...

04.03.2026 05:20 πŸ‘ 48 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 2

β€œit is time, finally and forever, to get rid of for-profit scientific publishers.”

04.03.2026 08:00 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? The long read: It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell

"Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?"

A classic from Stephen Buranyi at the Guardian on the #SciencePublishing industry.

www.theguardian.com/science/2017...

#ResearchPublishing #AcademicPublishing

01.09.2023 12:07 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

Another great article by @mastroianni.bsky.social on the current #SciencePublishing system.

Don't publish with for-profit publishers like Elsevier, Springer Nature, et al. It's really simple. There are so many cool #PlantScience society journals. #SciPub

See also: bsky.app/profile/soms...

04.03.2026 07:20 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 3
Post image Post image

In a joint appointment with the University of Halle we are looking for a Department Head in Chemistry of Natural Products and Bioactives. This is a unique opportunity to work as a chemist in a plant biology institute. Interested? Apply here: berufungsportal.uni-halle.de

03.03.2026 16:12 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Preprint Editors – Development's next step into the preprint landscape Summary: This Editorial announces a call for Preprint Editors in Development to help expand the journal's relationship with preprints by curating our β€˜In preprints’ articles.

New from @dev-journal.bsky.social: we're launching a new initiative and hiring Preprint Editors to help navigate the growing world of preprints in developmental & stem cell biology

Join our community & shape the future of research

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

02.03.2026 14:54 πŸ‘ 55 πŸ” 39 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I'd like to remind everyone that CAM has evolved as many if not more times than C4. There are entire biomes where CAM is dominant. If you like tequila, or pineapple, or your pretty orchid you got at the grocery store, you can thank CAM.

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk. Or CAMtalk as it were.

02.03.2026 15:31 πŸ‘ 38 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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🚨Two fully funded PhD opportunities in Australia!

Improving C4 photosynthesis in vegetation models.
Supervised by Dani Way (ANU, Canberra) and myself (UTS, Sydney).

1. Lab- and field-based project at ANU – see flyer below

2. Modelling project at UTS – www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

24.02.2026 00:41 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 26 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
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Faculty position in Plant Molecular Biology (Associate Professor or Tenure-Track Assistant Professor) at Aarhus University, Denmark
mbg.au.dk/aktuelt/ledi...

25.02.2026 09:35 πŸ‘ 35 πŸ” 52 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

New version of our preprint on bioRxiv about bioRxiv up. Now that’s what I call a revision – 6 years after the first version!
It has new data about our progress and highlights from a massive user survey. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

26.02.2026 16:05 πŸ‘ 78 πŸ” 43 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 4

😬

www.science.org/content/arti...

25.02.2026 09:09 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

Happy to have this nice story out in the world ☺️ thanks to everyone involved!

24.02.2026 19:28 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Nature News Intern, Springer Nature Opening Doors Programme Nature News Intern, Springer Nature Opening Doors Programme London, UK - Hybrid Working Model Application deadline: 9th March 2026 Are you looking for an internship that provides hands-on experience i...

➑️ It's on! Paid internship for aspiring science journalists at Nature's London office. Up to three days a week working from home. All the details are here: springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Spring...

24.02.2026 14:56 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Check out our new preprint by @octaviarmn.bsky.social and @liobarueger.bsky.social in collaboration with @meikeburow.bsky.social - we investigate the spatial effect of glucosinolates on root microbiomes in Arabidopsis and Camelina! www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... lots of cool stuff!

24.02.2026 13:16 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
Borrowing plants’ recycling tricks to treat Parkinson’s disease Newly identified autophagy receptor in liverworts found to recycle membraneless organelles – and to send Parkinson’s linked alpha-synuclein for degradation in human neurons. This was discovered by pla...

Read more about the research here: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/detail/n...

23.02.2026 16:18 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Really happy to see this one out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Alibek's drive & great coll w/ friends @gekaragoz.bsky.social & E. Hallacli resulted in a cool story that starts with our beloved #Marchantia and ends with iPSC-derived neurons 🀩πŸ€ͺ A short 🧡

23.02.2026 17:05 πŸ‘ 119 πŸ” 53 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 7
Advanced Scientist in Quantitative Genetics and Biostatistics (m/f/d) for Trait Discovery Advanced Scientist in Quantitative Genetics and Biostatistics (m/f/d) for Trait Discovery

Trait discovery is one of the most difficult parts of our work here at @kwsgroup.bsky.social. Thus, we need help:

We are looking for a Scientist in #QuantitativeGenetics & #Biostatistics for Trait Discovery.

This is a full time, permanent position here in Einbeck.

#PlantScience #PlantSciJobs

23.02.2026 15:05 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 23 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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I have a PhD student and a post-doc position available in my lab to work on plant photobiology. Please use the links below to postulate.
Please RT, many thanks
career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

23.02.2026 13:18 πŸ‘ 33 πŸ” 61 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 3

The field of molecular biology started in the 70s, plant mol bio even in the 80s only. This was a completely new way of working & was very different from traditional Botany. Both study the same thing, but the approaches were fundamentally different. So it felt like there should be a differentiation.

22.02.2026 16:59 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0