I am a Fungal Virologist. My interest focuses on mycoviruses in plant pathogenic fungi and looking for hypovirulent mycoviruses that could be utilized as a biocontrol agent for controlling the pathogenic fungi. During my Ph.D., I characterized novel mycoviruses isolated from environmental fungal isolates. I did part of my Ph.D. research at Okayama University Japan.
At WSL, I characterized novel mycoviruses identified from the ash dieback fungus, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. The potential of a mitovirus to be used as a biocontrol agent against ash dieback fungus was also tested.
Currently, I am working on the virome of Swiss isolates of Armillaria fungus to look for a virocontrol for the root-rot pathogen.