Research

"Ecology and evolution of infectious disease" may seem like a narrow topic to some, but if considering the fact that almost all life on earth is either parasitic or affected by at least one parasite, this topic now encompasses a very broad range of studies and applications. I am most interested in the way that host populations are affected evolutionarily by their interactions with infectious pathogens, and how historical disease exposure influences the evolutionary potential of hosts to respond to current (or future) pathogens. I am interested in how pathogens interact with one-another within a host, and how that affects the disease community at the population level. I am currently working on the biotic and abiotic factors influencing disease expression and pathogen distribution in the natural host/(multi)-pathogen system of fungal anther-smut disease in alpine populations of the wildflower, Silene vulgaris. Combining field and laboratory studies, this system provides a great model for testing theories in ecological and evolutionary disease dynamics. This research has implications for the evolution of host resistance strategies, pathogen virulence, disease emergence and climate change.

PHD  “Determinants of pathogen distribution in natural populations”

Master’s “Evolution of suppressed recombination in sex chromosomes of Microbotryum”

UNDERGRAD  BS Biology / Italian