Friml Group
Developmental and Cell Biology of Plants
When conditions get tough, animals typically fight or flee, but plants are rooted in their environment, and, as a result, have become remarkably adaptable. The Friml group investigates the mechanisms underlying plants’ adaptability during embryonic and postembryonic development.
Plants and animals have different life strategies. Plants are highly adaptive, and able to modify development and physiology to environmental changes; they can easily regulate growth, initiate new organs or regenerate tissues. Many of these developmental events are mediated by the plant hormone auxin. The Friml group investigates the unique properties of auxin signaling, which can integrate both environmental and endogenous signals. Employing methods spanning molecular physiology, developmental and cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, and mathematical modeling, the group focuses on auxin transport, cell polarity, endocytic recycling, as well as non-transcriptional mechanisms of signaling. In their work, the Friml group gains insights into the mechanisms governing plant development, and have shown how signals from the environment are integrated into plant signaling and result in changes to plant growth and development.
Group Leader
Administrative Support
Team
Current Projects
Auxin signaling | Second messengers in plant signaling | Auxin transport | Cell polarity and polar targeting | Endocytosis and recycling
Publications
Glanc M, Van Gelderen K, Hörmayer L, Tan S, Naramoto S, Zhang X, Domjan D, Vcelarova L, Hauschild R, Johnson AJ, de Koning E, van Dop M, Rademacher E, Janson S, Wei X, Molnar G, Fendrych M, De Rybel B, Offringa R, Friml J. 2021. AGC kinases and MAB4/MEL proteins maintain PIN polarity by limiting lateral diffusion in plant cells. Current Biology. 31(9), 1918–1930. View
Hajny J, Prat T, Rydza N, Rodriguez Solovey L, Tan S, Verstraeten I, Domjan D, Mazur E, Smakowska-Luzan E, Smet W, Mor E, Nolf J, Yang B, Grunewald W, Molnar G, Belkhadir Y, De Rybel B, Friml J. 2020. Receptor kinase module targets PIN-dependent auxin transport during canalization. Science. 370(6516), 550–557. View
Hörmayer L, Montesinos López JC, Marhavá P, Benková E, Yoshida S, Friml J. 2020. Wounding-induced changes in cellular pressure and localized auxin signalling spatially coordinate restorative divisions in roots. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(26), 202003346. View
Narasimhan M, Johnson AJ, Prizak R, Kaufmann W, Tan S, Casillas Perez BE, Friml J. 2020. Evolutionarily unique mechanistic framework of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in plants. eLife. 9, e52067. View
Skokan R, Medvecká E, Viaene T, Vosolsobě S, Zwiewka M, Müller K, Skůpa P, Karady M, Zhang Y, Janacek DP, Hammes UZ, Ljung K, Nodzyński T, Petrášek J, Friml J. 2019. PIN-driven auxin transport emerged early in streptophyte evolution. Nature Plants. 5(11), 1114–1119. View
ReX-Link: Jirí Friml
Career
Since 2013 Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
2007 – 2012 Full Professor, University of Ghent, Belgium
2006 Full Professor, University of Göttingen, Germany
2002 – 2005 Group Leader, Habilitation, University of Tübingen, Germany
2002 PhD, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
2000 PhD, University of Cologne, Germany
Selected Distinctions
2024 Wittgenstein Award
2024 ERC Advanced Grant
2019 Neuron Award for Contribution to Science, Czech Republic
2017 ERC Advanced Grant
2016 Charles Albert Shull Award, ASPB
2015 Selected to 2015 World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds
2015 Erwin Schrödinger Prize, Austrian Academy of Science (ÖAW)
2014 Běhounek Prize, Czech Ministry of Education
2012 EMBO Gold Medal
2011 Elected Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2010 Member, EMBO
2010 Körber European Science Award
2010 Olchemim Scientific Award
2005 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize
2004 EMBO Young Investigator Award
2000 Max Planck Society Award: The Otto Hahn Medal
Additional Information
CV Jiří Friml
ERC grant Jiří Friml PSDP
ERC Advanced Grant Jiří Friml ETAP
FWF Stand-alone Project Methylation
FWF International Project
