RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Session One:
Pathogen Genomics, Biology and Epidemiology
Ralph Panstruga studied biology and obtained his PhD at RWTH Aachen University (Germany) in 1996. After post-doc times at the Sainsbury Laboratory (Norwich, U.K.) and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) in Cologne (Germany), he became a research group leader at the MPIPZ in 2003. In 2011, he moved to RWTH Aachen University where he took over a professorship in Plant Molecular Cell Biology.
His research interests are focused on the molecular analysis of plant-powdery mildew interactions with a particular emphasis on mlo-based broad-spectrum powdery mildew resistance and powdery mildew pathogenomics. While initially concentrating on the genome of the cereal pathogen Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei, he recently broadened his scope, aiming at a global comparative analysis of powdery mildew genome evolution. To this end, he studies the loss of otherwise conseved fungal genes, the birth and death of effector genes and the dynamics of tranposable elements throughout the powdery mildew lineage.