Goetz Hensel's Biography

Goetz Hensel, Senior Scientist, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research

I was crucially involved in the improvement of methods of Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer to cereals and in a new principle of RNA-mediated downregulation of genes called host-induced gene silencing (HIGS). Recently I focused on designer endonuclease-mediated gene targeting (TALEN, CRISPR/Cas9), molecular mechanisms underlying the initiation of pollen embryogenesis, the telomere-mediated truncation of chromosomes and genes involved in the spike architecture and domestication of barley.