Research
Projects, methods, collaborations, and scientific questions shaping my doctoral work.
Go to researchAlessandra Learmount
PhD student at the University of Cambridge funded by the BBSRC & Shuttleworth Scholarship.
My PhD is a collaboration between the Department of Pathology, the Crop Sciences Centre and IRRI (Philippines). It explores how to enhance rice yields through harnessing of the beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis. I work with crop breeders to ensure my work remains commercially relevant and can be translated beyond pure academia.
Current Academic Work
I have recently completed a rotation project on the underutilised crop Eragrostis tef exploring root system architecture and rhizosphere microbiome. This rotation was completed as a collaboration between Niab and the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge. It involved a combination of wet lab techniques (root phenotyping, DNA extraction, library prep for Oxford Nanopore metagenomic sequencing) and computational analysis (R, Kraken2 for taxonomic classification, and use of an HPC). The aim was to uncover potential methods to enhance crop yields and reduce lodging in tef, a staple crop for millions of people in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. My research set the foundations for future field validation and syncom experiments to determine whether our findings translate into enhanced crop performance. Despite this project coming to an end, I thoroughly enjoyed working on an underutilised crop and hope to continue engaging in related research. My current project in the Paszkowski lab in Cambridge focuses on rice as the model crop and has similar ambitions to enhance crop yields whilst reducing reliance on synthetic fertilisers through harnessing of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis.
Publications
Papers, preprints, posters, and talks.
CV
Academic milestones, work experiences, teaching and awards.
Open CV