Dr Kostya Kanyuka

Dr Kanyuka is Head of Science - Crop Improvement at Niab, providing scientific leadership across research programmes in crop genetics, genomics, pre-breeding, precision breeding and emerging biotechnologies. His role focuses on advancing scientific capabilities, fostering collaborations and translating research discoveries into practical solutions for crop improvement.

His research focuses on interactions between crop plants and fungal pathogens, particularly rusts of wheat and common bean, and Septoria tritici blotch of wheat. He is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms of natural disease resistance, how fungal pathogens manipulate host plants to cause disease, and how this knowledge can be exploited to develop more resilient crops.

His research combines genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, map-based cloning and AI-assisted predictions with functional genomics approaches, including plant virus-based technologies for gene silencing, overexpression and genome editing. He is also interested in developing innovative crop protection approaches, including spray-induced RNA interference.

Dr Kanyuka leads the UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey (UKCPVS), which monitors changes in virulence in wheat rust pathogens. His wider research interests include aerobiomics-based surveillance of fungicide resistance and understanding how crop genetics influences beneficial interactions with rhizosphere microbiomes, with the aim of improving plant nutrition, disease resistance and sustainable crop production.

For a full list of publications see Google Scholar