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.