17.11.2016 | MIE Group News
New Post-Doc (Dr. Tomonori Tsunoda) and PhD Student (Crispus Mbaluto) join MIE group
Dr. Tomonori Tsunoda (left) and Crispus Mbaluto (right)
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Tomonori will stay at iDiv for two years supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He will conduct a series of experiments to test roles of root exudates in the plant-plant interactions of the invasive plants, Barbarea vulgaris, and the plant-rhizobiome interactions. The species is originated from Europe, but invaded to Japan and is now expanding. Because allelochemicals in root exudates relate to the invasiveness of many plants, he will elucidate roles of the exudates also by using untarget metabolomics, which is the new tool challenged by Dr. Alexander Weinhold and Prof. Nicole van Dam.
Crispus Mbaluto, comes from Kenya Africa, and he’s joining iDiv as PhD student in the Molecular Interaction Ecology research group, led by Prof. Dr. Nicole van Dam. He will be working closely with Dr. Ainhoa Martinez Medina to understand systemic induced responses resulting from root knot nematodes and shoot herbivores interaction.
