People

During my doctoral research I got experienced with Plant Molecular Biology in the in the group of Csaba Koncz in the Department of Jeff Schell at the Max-Planck-Institute for Breeding Research in Cologne. For my post-doctoral studies, I joined the laboratory of Chris Somerville for engineering polyesters in plants at Michigan State University and the Carnegie Institution of Plant Biology in Stanford. Afterwards I moved to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, to use molecular genetics for the characterization of the biosynthesis of salicylic acid after pathogen infection in Arabidopsis in the laboratory of Jean-Pierre Métraux. Furthermore, I established a project on the elucidation of the functions of cutin and the cuticle. I joined the DBMV at the University of Lausanne as a group leader in 2004 to continue my research on the cuticle.

I entered the group as a PhD student, in October 2005. My main interest is to understand cuticle development and its roles in Arabidopsis thaliana. For this, I use different mutants having increased cuticle permeability. Interestingly, these mutants show an increased resistance to Botrytis cinerea, a necrotrophic fungus causing important damages to many crop plants.

I liked studying plant biology and I am interested in improving crop plants by molecular tools. During my master, I did my training in the "Laboratoire des interactions plantes-microorganismes". I studied the interaction of an effector from the pathogenic bacteria Ralstonia solanacearum with his potentials targets in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Since February 2010 I am a PhD student at the DBMV in the group of Christiane Nawrath. I am interested in the formation of the cuticle in Arabidopsis and I like in particular the use of genetics and cell biology for characterizing this process.
 

I was always fascinated by plants and how they defend themselves against biotic and abiotic stresses. That’s why I studied plant biology and more specifically interactions between plants and microorganisms. During my master, I worked on the characterization of several secreted effectors by the pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae during rice infection in the INRA of Montpellier.

I joined the DBMV in February 2010 for my PhD. I’ll be working on the characterization of the transport function PEC1, an ABC transporter involved in cutin biosynthesis. I'll also characterize the homologue of this transporter in rice.