Michael’s research interests focus on understanding the interaction of plants with their pathogens and the underlying mechanisms that drive the plant immune response to pathogens.
In his BBSRC funded DTP studentship Michael aims to understand the spatiotemporal immune response of Arabidopsis thaliana during colonisation by the aphid pest Myzus persicae; a generalist insect with a host range of more than 40 plant families.
His research is multi-disciplinary combining molecular-biology, genetics, genomics, phenotyping and computational-biology amongst other disciplines. His work is strongly driven by applying, developing and challenging next generation sequencing technologies, which allow him to approach intractable biological questions in novel and creative ways.
In his PhD programme Michael is greatly advised by Saskia Hogenhout (John Innes Centre, UK), Sam Mugford (John Innes Centre, UK), Iain Macaulay (Earlham Institute, UK) and Matthew Clark (Natural History Museum, UK).
