Laure David is a postdoc in the Plant Biochemistry group of Sam Zeeman at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on regulation of starch metabolism. For the CASS project, she also analyses starch and cell wall properties among different accessions of cassava to study how these traits affect end-product quality. In collaboration with IITA researchers, Laure successfully conducted the first confined field trial of the project in Nigeria. Here, cassava lines with reduced starch remobilization upon pruning were investigated. Laure successfully demonstrated that the plants indeed displayed lower starch remobilization upon sink to source transition and thus exhibited higher starch content at harvest time. Starch metabolism / Starch-quality / Natural variation / Arabidopsis / Cassava