Spring 2026 Shatil grant winners Sigal Savaldi-Goldstein and Joshua Grolman

Congratulations to Prof. Sigal Savaldi-Goldstein of the Faculty of Biology and Asst. Prof. Joshua Grolman of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. The two received an HSPRC Shatil grant for the project “Increasing plant vigor: real-time mapping of nanomechanical strain fields in vivo of growing roots with mechanophores”.

Soybean is an important source of sustainable protein. Understanding its underlying mechanisms is therefore essential for improving yield under diverse environmental conditions, including stress conditions such as drought.

The goal of this project is to develop a method that will enable measurement of how mechanical forces change over time and across different root cell types, without damaging them. This will allow a better understanding of the physical basis of root system growth. At a more advanced stage of the research, the measurements will be extended to environmental stress conditions.

Roots are central to global food security, as nearly all mineral nutrients consumed by humans are absorbed from the soil through root systems. Because root function also affects the entire plant, the tools and concepts developed in this research could support efforts to improve yields in protein-rich crops.