Plant Cryopreservation: Principles, Applications and Challenges of Banking Plant Diversity at Ultralow Temperatures

Meet our Speaker

Manuela Nagel studied Agricultural Sciences at the University of Göttingen, Germany. During her PhD, she discovered a deep passion for the long-term preservation of plant genetic resources. She conducted research on the quantitative genetics and biochemistry of seed longevity at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany, and the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens in the UK. 

Since 2016, M. Nagel has led the Cryo- and Stress Biology Group at IPK Gatersleben, where she manages the cryobank preserving approximately 2,100 potato, 250 Allium, and 150 mint accessions. Her current research focuses on stress responses and molecular mechanisms during cryopreservation, the role of endophytes, and the use of genotyping-by-sequencing data to support strategic conservation.

M. Nagel also shares her expertise as a lecturer at the University of Hohenheim. Furthermore, she is actively engaged in advancing conservation science and practice through co-organizing workshops, such as under the BOLD and the ECPGR Garli-CCS project and took the lead in the Global Strategy for the Conservation of Potato.