My group focuses on the functional analysis of transcription factors and their gene regulatory networks in plants, in particular in relation to abiotic stress tolerance and growth and development under stress conditions. Our preferred model species are Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato, although we are increasingly expanding our research towards cereal crops. We employ a broad spectrum of molecular methods including, besides others: plant genetic engineering, genome editing, gene expression analysis by qRT-PCR, in situ hybridization, RNA-seq and promoter-reporter gene fusions, yeast 2-hybrid screens, BiFC, EMSA, ChIP, and the physiological analysis of plants. We also perform synthetic biology research, currently with a focus on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to develop novel bioengineering tools.