Rucha is a cell biologist interested in the overarching mechanics of how plants coordinate growth with environmental cues. She uncovered components of the hormone-regulated vesicle trafficking machinery in plants that regulates primary transporters which energise plant growth and is now extending this work to understand how these pathways governing plant growth overlap with disease immunity.
Rucha studies how plants sense and respond to climate challenges in the context of global warming and rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This includes the regulation of stomata, the microscopic pores on plants which mediate plant exchanges with their environment to dictate carbon and water cycles of the Earth. Plants responses to CO2 include immediate adjustments to stomatal movements and developmental changes in stomatal density and patterning on the leaf surface over longer times. This research is essential to develop new strategies to enhance crop productivity and safeguard agriculture against climate challenges.
Going beyond her work in the laboratory, Rucha leads Sci-Seedlets, a cross-disciplinary Plant science education project, aiming to inspire the next generation of plant scientists through work in the classroom. Rucha has built this scheme to support primary schools, teachers, and educators with resources that combine traditional paper-based, interactive experimental and virtual gamification to provide tasters for plant science research for enhanced educational outcomes. Sci-Seedlets resources promote concepts of equality, diversity and inclusion in STEM and are now being expanded for use in secondary, undergraduate, and postgraduate teaching.
