Lab members

Dr. Matthew Bakker

Principal investigator.
Matthew completed his PhD in Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota. He did a post-doc at Colorado State University and worked as a staff scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture before joining the Department of Microbiology at the University of Manitoba. Matthew teaches Microbes In Our Environment, Introductory Biogeochemistry, and contributes to Graduate Microbiology and to Evolution of Fungal Pathogens.

M. Shimosh Kurera

PhD student (co-advised with Dr. Sean Walkowiak).
Shimosh is developing methods for rapidly identifying unknown Fusarium and rust strains via MALDI biotyping. Shimosh is an alumnus of the EvoFunPath training program.

Rapid identification of Fusarium species causing head blight in Canada using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry
Identifying Wheat Rusts Using MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry

Raveena Manikku Badu

Technician 3.
Raveena helps keep the lab running smoothly, and works on soil bacterial isolations, genome sequencing & genomics.

Laura Los

MSc student.
Laura is using metagenomics and metatranscriptomics to investigate how farmer management decisions impact microbial contributions to nitrous oxide emissions in agricultural soils. Her research is a part of the LEAP project.

Hariniha Selvarajan

MSc student.
Hariniha is investigating interactions between Fusarium graminearum and bioactive compounds in barley.

Rebecca Pagès

PhD student.
Rebecca is using metagenomics to understand how soil microbial communities respond to plants and to agricultural inputs like urease inhibitors and nitrification inhibitors.

Varisha Rehman

Co-op student.
Varisha is screening wild strains of Fusarium graminearum for fungicide sensitivity.

Avery Hoeppner

Undergraduate honours research (former co-op student & undergraduate student research awardee).
Avery is researching responses of Fusarium graminearum to plant polyamines.

Sara Mills

Undergraduate.
Sara is supporting our whole-plant experiments and our field sampling around southern Manitoba.

Blanka Kyralová

PhD student.
Blanka is researching the biological detoxification of trichothecene mycotoxins.

Dianbo Sun

Undergraduate honours research.
Dianbo is working on gene editing in Fusarium graminearum.

Avery DeJaegher

Undergraduate.
Avery is providing general lab support.

Frank Romero

Visiting scholar.
Frank is visiting us from the State University of Campinas (Brazil) for an internship, thanks to the generous support of the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program.

Lab alumni

Dr. Anuradha Jayathissa, PhD
Impacts of pathogen strain and barley cultivar on Fusarium head blight in barley and during malting
Microbiome dynamics during malting of barley grains infested by Fusarium graminearum strains
The role of HYD5 in Fusarium-barley interactions

Brian Harrison, MSc
“Designing cell and protein-based DON biosensors for use in investigating DON-biotransforming microbes”

Kelsey Wog, MSc
“Beyond cyp51: A novel reduced spore dormancy pathway confers azole resistance in Fusarium graminearum”

Mehrdad Mohammadiani, MSc
Biocontrol of soil-borne plant diseases
“Response of soil fungal communities associated with different soil fractions to tillage practices and crop rotation”

Tarin Farhana, MSc
“How Fusarium graminearum affects intermediate wheatgrass and its mycobiome”

Janice Fajardo, MSc
Microbiome profiling suggests novel endosymbiont associations of insect pests of stored grain
Interactions between Fusarium graminearum and hydroxycinnamic acids from cereal crops

Arshani Alukumbura, MSc
Minimal impacts on the wheat microbiome when Trichoderma gamsii T6085 is applied as a biocontrol agent to manage fusarium head blight disease

Anna Volakaki, Graduate student

Ambroise Loeb, Mitacs Globalink visiting scholar

Guénaël Artus, Mitacs Globalink visiting scholar

Kyle Remillard, Undergraduate

Atheena Quilal-lan, Undergraduate honours project

Ridhima Arora, Undergraduate

Robin Nelson, Co-op
Interactions between Fusarium graminearum and hydroxycinnamic acids from cereal crops

Linh Le, Undergraduate summer research

Gillian Mitchell-Lawson, Co-op
Interactions between Fusarium graminearum and hydroxycinnamic acids from cereal crops