Our society depends on plants.
Plants are the primary source for human and animal nutrition and dominate the natural landscape.
Plants provide us with a breathtaking range of commodities ranging from pharmaceuticals to building materials and offer an environment for leisure and recreation. In many ways plants are essential contributors to human wellbeing and health. Experimental Plant Sciences study the fundamental life processes of plants at different organisational levels, from molecules and cells to whole plants and ecosystems. The goal of these studies is to understand how plants develop and how they function in, and adapt to, continuously changing and often hostile environments. At the Faculty of Biology of the Utrecht University several research groups are studying various aspects of plant biology using Arabidopsis as a model.