RE-IMAGINE-CROPS has already been up and running for over 1 year!
With the harvest season well underway across Europe, we have taken a moment to reflect on how our team has been working to improve sustainable agriculture by understanding how wheat plants respond to fertiliser. We are creating the first system to examine metabolic activity in real-time combined with micrometre-scale, cellular-level visualisation. To do this, we are developing a moving system that can perform real-time positron emission tomography and multiphoton endoscopy. Below are just a few of the highlights so far.
First Annual General meeting and first in person get together – A Milestone Moment
Getting to know each other and discuss the motivations behind being a part of this work. Exploring the ideas where we are and how together we can push the boundaries to develop a system to support the drive to support ecological farming based on the needs of a growing plant.
Expanding the team with new partner NOVA.id our consortium
NOVA.id through the Department of Chemistry at NOVA University Lisbon – Faculty of Sciences and Technology (NOVA FCT), brings strong expertise in plant physiology, biochemistry, and omics analyses. As a new partner they will lead the systematically characterize the molecular responses of wheat plants to nitrogen fertilization including with the addition of the PET tracer we are developing. This will enable a unique multi-layered dataset linking macroscopic PET and microscopic ME imaging to molecular and physiological information over time.
Precision Agronomy: present and future event, 29th April 2026
Hosted together with AgroServ another EU funded project working to support the agroecological transition in Europe. The event also included a Plant Imaging Expert Group Live event (Panel Experts from Across Europe) 29th April 2026, read more here or watch the recording.
More Exciting Steps to come
There is plenty yet to come that we are excited to share with you. We are excited to share the progress of our first imaging experiments. This will include our upcoming real-time PET imaging pilot tests at the University of Turku, Finland, where we test our multi-modal tracer on young wheat plants. Stay tuned also for an introduction to our talented consortium partners and gain some insight into what a project like RE-IMAGINE-CROPS means to them.