Research Area: Plant Hosts

Josh’s interest in fungal biology started while earning a BS in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota where he did research on the human fungal pathogens Cryptococcus neoformans and Blastomyces dermatitidis in the Nielsen lab at the University of Minnesota. Josh went on to pursue a Ph.D. in[...]

The Hay lab uses methods from microbial ecology, physiology, genomics, and genetics to understand how human activities affect microbes in diverse environmental settings. For instance, we study how handling of milk collection kits affects the microbiome of pumped human milk. Students will use genomics to[...]

Our research is directed at characterizing structures and biological function of biogenic small molecules (BSMs) that regulate development and immune responses in plants and animals and serve important functions with associated microbiota. Using comparative metabolomic approaches we have engaged in a comprehensive effort to characterize[...]

The research in the Kessler Lab focuses on the ecology and evolution of plant chemical defenses (secondary metabolites) to pathogens and herbivores and the role of soil microbial communities to affect and be affected by plant secondary metabolism. Thus we try to understand how microbially-mediated[...]

The Turgeon lab works on mechanisms of fungal virulence to plants with particular emphasis on the roles of fungal secondary metabolites, iron and oxidative stress. Classical genetic, molecular genetic, and genomic approaches are used.

Two main areas of study in the Smart lab include identifying genes in bacterial pathogens that enable movement within a plant, and understanding the population diversity of rapidly reproducing oomycete pathogens. These studies enhance our knowledge of pathogen virulence determinants and further elucidate how plants[...]

We study the mechanisms underlying ecological interactions between fungi and bacteria.  Student projects will focus on current work to characterize the bacteria associated with mycorrhizal fungi in poorly studied desert habitats in California and Israel. Students will learn culture and microscopy techniques, and phylogenetic analysis.

We study disease resistance in maize and sorghum with a substantial focus on fungal pathogens that produce toxins and cause large-scale food system contamination. We work at scales ranging from a single nucleotide (which genetic variations provide quantitative resistance) to whole-plant phenotypes (looking at tradeoffs[...]

My research spans infection biology across scales and systems, utilizing a variety of theoretical and computational approaches, such as: modeling of infectious disease dynamics in complex populations, networks and landscapes; characterizing the structure, function and evolution of cellular networks involved in pathogen virulence and host[...]

The Martin lab studies the molecular bases of bacterial infection processes and the plant immune system. Our research focuses on speck disease caused by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. We use diverse experimental methods in biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology, forward and reverse genetics, genomics, molecular[...]