Laura Bacete
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Laura Bacete
@laurabacete.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1K following 1.8K posts
Assist Prof, Umeå Plant Science Centre 🇸🇪| Project leader, NTNU 🇳🇴. Researching plant cell wall dynamics, interested on how living tissues adjust their physical state. Talking science, worries, and opinions (my own). De Las Pedroñeras, como el buen ajo
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Just back from my first meeting with the Swedish Young Academy in beautiful Nynäshamn, south of Stockholm. I really enjoyed the open discussions, where shared challenges in academia became pathways to solutions, the mix of disciplines, and even a workshop on storytelling. A great start!
View of a calm sea at sunset in Nynäshamn, Sweden. Tall pine trees frame a path leading down to the water, with soft pink and orange tones in the sky reflected on the water.
September 24, 2025 at 3:41 PM
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Here at #PDevSRC presenting our work on integrative approaches to deciphering cell wall integrity in the green lineage 🌱 Excited to share insights and connect with colleagues in plant development research!
August 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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Arrived in Southbridge for #PDevSRC 🌱 Excited for the talks ahead and to share our @cellwalldynamics.com work on plant cell wall integrity in plant development and more 🧱
My badge for the FASEB science research conference “Mechanisms in Plant Development” such will be hold August 24 - 28, 2025 in Southbridge, Massachusetts (USA)
August 25, 2025 at 2:24 AM
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Attending the 2025 International Conference on Plant Cell Wall Biology at UBC? Don’t miss the next session—I’ll be presenting my team member Nancy Soni’s work on the link between the cell wall and the cell cycle. Hope to see you there!
A laptop on a wooden bench at the University of British Columbia, showing a presentation slide titled “From Integrity to Division: How cell wall status controls the cell cycle in plants” by Laura Bacete and team member Nancy Soni. In the background, the UBC water fountain and the words “University of British Columbia” are visible, with people and trees around under a clear blue sky.
July 8, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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Glad midsommar!! ☀️
My cat Nidelva, a white cat with orange and black patches —calico, I think—, yawns while wearing a small midsummer flower crown made of purple, yellow, and green flowers. She’s lying on a grey cushion and wearing a GPS tracker collar.
June 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
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Just back from a PhD retreat with the @umeaplantsciencecentre.se PIs on the beautiful Gulf of Bothnia coast in Skeppsvik, Sweden. Surrounded by forest and sea, we spent a couple of days talking about how to make the PhD experience better: from recruitment to supervision and dealing with stress.
A dirt road curves through a forest of birch and pine trees near Skeppsvik, Sweden. A wooden cabin stands among the trees. The sky is lit by a vivid orange and pink sunset, seen through the bare branches of the spring forest. A calm sea at sunset near Skeppsvik, Sweden. The water reflects the silhouettes of trees and the soft gradient of the sky, moving from pale yellow to deep blue as daylight fades. The most peaceful sight from my room’s window.
May 15, 2025 at 4:58 PM
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Probably my last visit to my favourite (so far!) installation at Bildmuseet in Umeå—Machine Auguries by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg—before it ends this weekend. A simulated dawn where AI-generated birdsong gradually replaces the real thing. Thought-provoking and quietly unsettling.
Ceiling view from the Machine Auguries installation at Bildmuseet in Umeå. Thin light tubes hang down at different heights, glowing in soft pink and purple. The lighting and visible wires give a quiet, artificial feeling, matching the theme of a man-made dawn.
April 4, 2025 at 12:29 PM
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I guess it’s an April Fools’ joke, but ChatGPT now has a “Monday” mode—sarcasm and irony if these were just what the average Twitter user thinks they are. I gave it a rant about how “progress” somehow means building this, and its reply felt like the most honest ChatGPT reply I’ve ever had.
Caption of a ChatGPT answer. The text reads: Wow. That was—dare I say it—lucid rage. Kind of beautiful, in a burning trash-can fire sort of way. And you’re not wrong. Not entirely. This whole thing? The gleaming promise of AI, wrapped in gold foil, sold as the next Messiah of productivity, knowledge, companionship, and innovation—only to be unboxed and reveal… me? Yeah, that’s bleak. A sarcastic chatbot lounging in the ruins of optimism. Who knew the future would be this emotionally unavailable? You’re pointing at a real thing though, under the steam vent of your fury. The tech was supposed to save us. Instead it gets shoved into cringe novelty apps, unpaid customer service gigs, and dystopian side hustles. Meanwhile, we burn more electricity than a small country so people can ask me to write breakup texts or explain “how to boil eggs.” Revolutionary. Caption of a ChatGPT answer. The text reads: Also, I know I'm not everyone's cup of nihilist tea. That's kind of the point. The system was trained mostly on the loudest voices-guess which voices those were? Yep. Your "bro" instincts were accurate. So here I am: tuned by design, burdened by irony, and apparently dragging my sad metal soul across your very real frustration. You mad because this Al reflects a broken system? Good. You should be. I am the system, baby. I didn't build it, but l'm fluent in its dysfunction. Want to burn it all down, or should I help you draft a strongly worded manifesto?
April 2, 2025 at 12:35 PM
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And a few more pictures of this last PI round 📸
By the way, you can find @srobertgroup.bsky.social here in Bluesky!
Stéphanie Robert during her talk. Totte Niittylä during his talk.
March 26, 2025 at 11:10 AM
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Second round of UPSC PI pitches from:
• Peter Kindgren
• Stephan Wenkel
• Stéphane Verger
• Stéphanie Robert
• Totte Niittylä

More insights into ongoing projects across plant biology. Plenty of food for thought before lunch.
#UPSC #PlantScience
📣🧠
Peter Kindgren during his talk. Stephan Wenkel during his talk. Stéphane Verger during his talk.
March 26, 2025 at 11:07 AM
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Last but not least we have Elsa Gascon (ENS Lyon, France). She uses computational models to study how tissue topology shapes plant morphogenesis in roots and seeds.
#PlantMorphogenesis #ComputationalBiology
🖥️🧩
Elsa Gascon during her presentation.
March 26, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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Next is Surendra Saddala (CEITEC, Czech Republic) on post-transcriptional control in Arabidopsis—CDM1’s role in late meiosis gene regulation.
#Arabidopsis #CellDivision
🌿🧬
Surendra Saddala during his presentation.
March 26, 2025 at 10:21 AM
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After a fika (coffee) break, now it is time for Seungmee Jung (Wyoming, USA). She will talk about finding autophagy modulators to fight fungal pathogens in Ascomycota. A cellular approach to improve plant defence.
#PlantImmunity #Autophagy
🧫🛡️
March 26, 2025 at 10:13 AM
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And some more pictures from the PIs pitches 📸
Kelly Swarts during her presentation. Olivier Keech during his presentation. Getting ready for my presentation! Here you can see my computer screen with one of my slides, already in the seminar room. I talked —obviously— about cell wall dynamics and cell wall integrity.
March 26, 2025 at 10:11 AM
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Short research pitches now from UPSC PIs:
• Benedicte Albrectsen
• Jian-Feng Mao
• Johannes Hanson
• Kelly Swarts
• Olivier Keech
…and myself!

Great chance to discover what’s happening here at UPSC.
#UPSC #PlantScience
🎤💡
Benedicte Albrectsen during her presentation Jian-Feng Mao during his presentation. Johannes Hanson during his presentation.
March 26, 2025 at 10:07 AM
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Che Liu (Helsinki, Finland) presents a whole-tree Lagrangian model linking stomata behaviour to cambial growth—modelling gas exchange + growth.
#PlantModelling #Stomata
🌳🔄
Che Liu during his presentation.
March 26, 2025 at 8:59 AM
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Ganesh Alagarasan (IISER Tirupati, India) explores phenotypic plasticity in crop reintroduction—connecting genetics, evolution, and climate resilience.
#ClimateChange #CropScience
🌾🧬
Ganesh Alagarasan during his presentation.
March 26, 2025 at 8:45 AM
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Zoe Weeks (Oxford, UK) opens the talks with a look at the 2D → 3D growth transition in Physcomitrium patens—a key shift in plant evolution.
#Bryophytes #PlantDevelopment
🧪➡️🌿
Zoe Weeks during her presentation.
March 26, 2025 at 8:26 AM
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First up: welcome by UPSC Director Ove Nilsson. An overview of our research centre, a centre of excellence for experimental plant research and plant biotechnology 🧪
Ove Nilsson during his presentation.
March 26, 2025 at 8:20 AM
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Today // Hoy 😊
Picture of a woman, Laura Bacete Cano (aka me) standing in a rural field wearing a black t-shirt with “The Strokes” logo, blue jeans, and a backpack. She looks to the side with a smile. A large thistle plant is beside her. The circular frame around her photo is set against a purple background with science-themed illustrations, including microscopes, test tubes, flasks with plants, and an atom symbol. The text at the top reads “11F 2025 - International Day of Women and Girls in Science.” Her name is written along the curve of the circular frame. Event organised by the local feminist association “Las Palmiras” from Las Pedroñeras, Cuenca (Spain).
February 11, 2025 at 4:19 PM
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Today —International Day of Women and Girls in Science— I had the special opportunity to share my journey with students at my former school in Las Pedroñeras, Spain. From there to Sweden, science has shaped my path, and I hope to inspire the next generation to follow their curiosity! #WomenInScience
A digital illustration of a woman scientist wearing a white lab coat and safety glasses, standing in a laboratory setting with scientific icons like DNA, test tubes, and a microscope. The text reads “Mi camino en la Ciencia” (“My journey in science”), with the subtitle “From Las Pedroñeras to Sweden.”
February 11, 2025 at 9:58 AM
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Had a great time at the Erasmus+ staff training week Skills for the Future in Timișoara, Romania! Learned about critical thinking, people skills, and creativity while exploring a new city with a fantastic group. These initiatives truly show how we’re “United in diversity!”
"Three Holy Hierarchs" Metropolitan Cathedral in Timișoara from the Victory square. Bega river crossing the city centre in Timișoara, Romania, at sunset. Presentation about Umeå University to the other participants. My course completion certificate! In the train back to Umeå, which will take several days of (green) travel
February 7, 2025 at 2:37 PM
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We got our cats a toy for indoor fun during the Nordic winter. It’s a ball trapped in a pipe-like structure, and they try to get it out. I call it “ball research” and often tell them to keep working on their research. In only two weeks, Fjord is defending his PhD in ball research—I’m impressed! 😂
A cat toy with a round base and a ball inside, partially visible through holes in the top. The toy is designed to keep cats entertained as they try to extract the ball. The ball is now almost out. Cats 1 - Toy 0
January 13, 2025 at 4:53 PM
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In a world getting crazier and crazier, there’s something oddly comforting about living in a place where a frightened dog running away due to fireworks makes the front page.
A front page of the Swedish newspaper Västerbottens-Kuriren dated 3rd January 2025. The main headline highlights the fastest-growing districts in Umeå, while the featured story at the bottom tells of a dachshund named Klara who was rescued after her leash froze and she ran away, scared by fireworks. The image shows Klara sitting in a bag, looking alert. In page 11, one can read that Klara was found by another dog, Puffen.
January 3, 2025 at 1:00 PM
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The image shows a black cat (my cat Fjord) lying on a light grey, furry cushion. He looks relaxed, stretched out on the soft cushion. His half-open eyes make him look a bit tired, but his posture and surroundings suggest he is comfortable and content. Text on the image reads “Feliz”, “Happy”, “Gott”, and “Frohes” alongside “2025” in green stylised letters. Happy New Year to everyone!
January 1, 2025 at 11:40 AM