Droevendaalsesteeg 10
6708 PB Wageningen
The Netherlands
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About
I am aiming to develop applications of microorganisms for a sustainable agriculture from an ecological perspective. I focus on finding the microbial assembly patterns and deploying them to provide beneficial functions to plants. My long-term goal is to develop a toolbox for plant improvement via their ever-associated beneficial microorganisms.
In current project, my research goal is to determine the impact of plant domestication on the taxonomic and functional diversification of the root microbiome, especially in identifying ‘missing’ plant microbes, their genomes and biosynthetic genes. Current research is focusing on identifying molecules produced by modern or wild tomato plants that recruit and/or activate beneficial ancestral microbiota and their functions from tomato native soil or commercial greenhouse soil.
Biography
Scientific outlook.
Gaining a detailed insight into the microbial functional traits, interactions with resident microbiome and host plants which can benefit plants represents the next step in my scientific development. This step is necessary for bridging the targeted application of microorganisms in agriculture (both greenhouses and fields) with observations and quantifications of plant associated microbial functions.
Academic communications and service.
I am well-connected in the international scientific community of microbial ecology, as shown by the fact that I presented my research in six international conferences, enabled amongst others through travel grants to attend “ISME17” in Leipzig (Germany) and “The Natural Products and Biocontrol 2018 congress” in Perpignan (France). I co-convened one session in Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2019, and am organizing the webinar series “Holo-omics”, starting in August 2022.
I am a member of the “ESF College of Expert Reviewers” to asses grant applications for the European Science Foundation, and am a peer reviewer for scientific journals including Ecology letters, Microbiome, New Phytologist, Environmental Microbiology, and Scientific reports.
Research group