Tina Romeis, head of the Department of Biochemistry of Plant Interactions, has been elected a member of the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences - one of the highest honors for scientists conferred by a German institution. The biochemist now belongs to the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology section of the prestigious academy.
"My first reaction was great joy at this recognition from the scientific community," says the plant scientist, "and at the same time deep gratitude, because there are many pioneers and companions who have made productive science possible and continue to do so."
The academy was founded in Schweinfurt in 1652. "Particularly for me as a Franconian, acceptance into the Leopoldina is very special," says Prof. Romeis. "And: with this, I am continuing an honorable tradition at the IPB." With Tina Romeis, the institute has a total of seven Leopoldina members, two of whom, Kurt Mothes and Benno Parthier, were even presidents of the academy. In addition, the institute has consistently produced new academy members over the years with Klaus Schreiber, Lutz Nover, Dierk Scheel, and Toni Kutchan.
The Leopoldina is the oldest scientific and medical learned society in the German-speaking world. With its approximately 1600 members from almost all scientific disciplines, the Leopoldina advises politicians and the public and, as the National Academy, represents German science abroad. New members are proposed by academy members because of their scientific excellence and elected by the presidential board in a multi-stage process.
Prof. Romeis has now also proven herself in this selection process. Her scientific career began with the study of biochemistry with a focus on organic chemistry and plant physiology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. After completing her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and postdoctoral stays at the LMU Munich and the Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre in Norwich (United Kingdom), she led her first independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne with a Sofia Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2004, she was appointed to a C4 professorship in plant biochemistry at Freie Universität Berlin. In 2019, Tina Romeis came to the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle, where she became a professor at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
In her research, Prof. Romeis focuses on calcium-dependent protein kinases, an important class of signal-transducing proteins in plant stress and defense responses. For example, she is interested in how calcium-mediated signaling pathways help plants develop and control resistance to pests. "A plant can 'remember' encounters with pests through what is known as 'priming' and then it can also switch off this alerted state of the immune system again, in other words, 'forget' the encounter", explains the plant researcher. To investigate signaling networks at the molecular level, Tina Romeis and her team use a wide range of methods, from cell biology and protein biochemistry to metabolomics.
Her acceptance into the Leopoldina, she sees as an obligation, she says. "I want to represent the topic and potential of plant sciences in the current societal discourse and look forward to this dialogue between researchers, the public, and policy makers." We warmly congratulate Prof. Romeis on her election to the Leopoldina.