Virginie Mengin is a senior research officer at the University of Essex. Within the RIPE project, Virginie’s work includes improving RUBP regeneration by looking at improving transcriptional rates of key Calvin-Benson enzymes using bioinformatics and gene editing. She and her team want to re-tune the Calvin-Benson cycle in target crops to target photosynthesis for crop improvement to raise yield potential. Virginie earned her bachelor’s degree in Cellular biology and physiology and her master’s degree in plant biology and biotechnology at Université de Bordeaux. She then earned her Doctorate in Plant central and photosynthetic carbon metabolism and Chronobiology at Potsdam Universität. She has done postdocs on light signaling, photosynthesis, the Calvin Benson cycle, and gene editing at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology and at the University of Essex. Throughout her time doing research, Virginie has had her work published in many peer-reviewed journals, including the Plant, Cell & Environment, Plant Physiology, Journal of Experimental Botany.