Fungal Interactions
The overarching goal of our research is to take a Global One Health approach, to develop fungi and fungal-derived compounds as biosolutions, which can support sustainable net-zero agricultural systems and new natural products for industry and food while maintaining plant health, productivity, and protecting biodiversity.
Understanding within- and between-species interactions is central to ecology and evolution, but also essential for innovating and inventing sustainable biosolutions for agriculture and human health.
Our work spans a continuum from basic to applied research. To this end we study the fundamental molecular, chemical, genomic and evolutionary mechanisms that govern fungal interactions.
We are particularly interested in how antagonistic (pathogenic) and beneficial (mutualistic) fungal symbionts interact with host plants or animals, and how we can translate such mechanistic insight into new biosolutions that improve plant growth and prevent fungus antimicrobial resistance (fAMR).
In short, we aim to use our insight of fungal interactions to develop applied biosolutions with societal significance.
Aim: To use our insight of fungal interactions to develop applied biosolutions with societal significance.
Relevance for society – why study fungal interactions?
Building a more sustainable food production system within planetary boundaries while maintaining production efficiency and protecting biodiversity in cropping systems is a major global challenge.
Reducing chemical fertilizer, pesticide, and fungicide use is a critical step towards achieving sustainability. However, in many cases there are no functional alternatives to the use of fungicides for mitigating the devastating impact of fungi as pathogens of plants, animals, and humans.
Fungi are also part of the solution, as they can make valuable contributions to agroecosystems, for example as plant-beneficial microbes that enhance plant resilience and growth.
Tackling the threats posed by pathogenic fungi while harnessing the underutilized potential of beneficial fungi and fungal compounds is a central guiding principle of our research.