I am a botanist at heart but embrace many diverse biological disciplines to answer my scientific questions. My master thesis at the University of Potsdam (Germany), and doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne (Germany) combined ecology, evolution, biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology. I love to communicate, investigate a problem from all angles and finally integrate knowledge to find the best possible solution.
In the Bergelson lab, I investigated fundamental biological questions: How do plants integrate growth and defense? Which genes determine the bacterial community residing in a plant? Which genes (other than R genes) contribute to strain-specific or general defense? Please see the links to individual project descriptions below and keep an eye out for upcoming publications.
One can now find me in the Allesina Lab at the University of Chicago, where I work on the book “Introduction to Scientific Computing”. Biologists are often simply expected to know how to code, run statistical analysis and generally organize and manage their work flow in order to get from large data sets to a polished publication. Stefano and I are setting out to help young biologists to learn these computational skills so they can entirely focus on being brilliant scientists.
Projects in the Bergelson lab
> PAMP induced growth responses in Arabidopsis thaliana
> Genetic basis of a natural plant pathosystem
> Host control of bacteria community composition in Arabidopsis thaliana