Plant Adaptation Lab (PAL)
The Plant Adaptation Lab (PAL) is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation Starting Grant and is a part of the Institute of Environmental Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland.
We are a growing team of motivated scientists engaged in cutting-edge research on mineral nutrition and environmental stress adaptation plants.
The Team
Principal Investigator
Priya Ramakrishna is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and leads the Plant Adaptation Laboratory (PAL) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, CH.
Her group aims to understand the fine-tuned mechanisms employed by plants to adapt to abiotic stress such as salinity.
Dr. Ramakrishna was a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Biological Geochemistry at EPFL from 2022 – 2025 where she pioneered the first application of the newly developed CryoNanoSIMS ion imaging pipeline on plant tissues. The work provided novel insights into subcellular salinity stress coping strategies of plants and forms the core area of research in her lab in addition to mineral nutrition of plants. She holds a Biotech Engineering from India, and a Masters and PhD in Plant Biology from the University of Nottingham, UK. Dr. Ramakrishna was awarded the prestigious Swiss National Science Foundation Starting Grant to lead an independent research group to explore the cellular adaptation strategies of plants in response to salinity stress.
Emylène Ostertag is a laboratory technician specialized in biology. After her apprenticeship in a research laboratory of environmental biotechnology at EPFL, she did 3 years of neuroscience research at the CHUV. Since January 2025, she work in LGB at EPFL and collaborates with Dr. Priya Ramakrishna of PAL to study symbiosis and functionalities of some marine and terrestrial ecosystem. Skilled in molecular biology, immunology, microbiology and proteomics, she is also passionate about nature, technology, sports and spirituality.
She loves to laugh and meet people from all around the world!
Francesca Cazzaniga is a postdoc with a strong background in molecular biology and genetics. She obtained her degree in Biotechnology from the University of Milan and a PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Sapienza University of Rome. Throughout her scientific journey, she has been driven by a common goal: understanding how plants respond to stress conditions, with a particular focus on salt stress during her doctoral studies. Currently, Francesca is continuing this research pathway at EPFL in Prof. Priya Ramakrishna’s lab, where she investigates in greater depth how plant roots adapt to saline environments. Passionate about molecular biology, genetics, and genome engineering applied to plant systems, she is equally fascinated by biodiversity and nature conservation.
Outside the lab, she enjoys outdoor adventures, especially those involving plenty of snow and skiing.
Job openings
If you are interested to know more about our work please contact us at: priya.ramakrishna@epfl.ch
Want to join our growing lab? Check-out the current opportunities and apply!
We also welcome applications from Master’s students.
Come join us!
