About
Emile is a mycologist and evolutionary biologist. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Education
- Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland
- Postdoctoral researcher, University of Pennsylvania, USA
- PhD Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University
- BS Life Sciences, Microbiology Specialization, McGill University, Canada
Research Description
Plant and animal health outcomes are shaped through diverse interactions with microbes. Yet predicting the outcomes of these interactions is a major challenge because even closely related microbes often interact with their hosts in completely different ways. The long-term goal of our lab is to understand the forces that maintain and promote variation in host-microbe interactions so we can better mitigate the harm of pathogens and maximize the benefit of mutualists. We do this by building new computational tools and integrating molecular genetic experiments with evolutionary analyses of large sequencing datasets. We mostly work with fungi because they are the primary agents of plant disease and mutualism, thus representing both threats and opportunities for growers and global food security. A current focus of the lab is to understand how intragenomic conflict and cooperation between fungi and mobile elements facilitate and constrain pathogen evolution.