Florian Kümmel
I am a 3rd year PhD student in the group of Paul Schulze-Lefert at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany. Previously, I studied biology at RWTH Aachen University, Imperial College London and the Sainsbury Laboratory at Cambridge University. During my bachelor thesis I performed protein-protein interaction assays of barley MLA NLR immune receptors and their corresponding Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei (Bgh) AVRa effectors. For my Master's thesis, I characterised the DNA methylation landscape of Bgh to investigate how epigenetic mechanisms influence the evolutionary trajectory of this plant pathogen. During my PhD, I am particularly interested in elucidating the molecular basis of NLR immune receptor activation and how this shapes the co-evolution of the host plant with biotrophic and necrotrophic pathogens.
Abstracts this author is presenting: