Dr. Andrea Sánchez Vallet joins the Interactions of Plants with Environment (IPM) program of the CBGP (UPM-INIA) EN

Her research aims to understand the molecular bases involved in the interaction between plants and potential pathogens and to determine the key pathogen components that are involved in host colonization.

Dr. Sánchez Vallet is a plant pathologist whose research aims to have a comprehensive understanding of plant pathosystems, with a major focus on determining the fundamental bases of fungal virulence. Some of her major research topics include investigating the function of effectors and their regulation and the elucidation of the molecular components involved in strain competition in genetically diverse infections.

Dr. Sánchez Vallet finished her PhD in 2009 in the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM, Spain) in the group of Prof. Antonio Molina. During her PhD she elucidated the molecular bases of non-host resistance in plants, identified novel antimicrobials and characterized complex signaling pathways that are triggered in plants upon a pathogen attack (Sánchez-Vallet et al 2010, Plant Journal 63(1); Sánchez-Vallet et al 2012 Plant Physiology 160(4)). She joined the group of Prof. Bart Thomma (Wageningen University) in 2011. As a post-doc she determined the structural bases by which a family of broadly distributed virulence factors interact with their host to prevent the induction of the host immune response (Sánchez-Vallet et al2013; elife 2, e00790; Sánchez-Vallet et al 2020, Plos Pathogens accepted). In 2014, she joined the Plant Pathology group at ETH Zurich as a group leader. At ETH, her research contributed to elucidate the molecular bases of pathogenicity of the most important pathogen of wheat in Europe, Zymoseptoria tritici (Krishnan et al 2018, BMC Biology 16(1); Meile et al 2018 New Phytologist 219(3); Sanchez-Vallet et al 2018, Annual Review of Phyhtopathology 56).

Dr. Sanchez Vallet joined the CBGP as a Ramón y Cajal fellow in June 2020. Her research will aim to understand the epigenetic regulation of virulence factors and the molecular mechanisms involved in virulence and competition of fungal plant pathogens. At the CBGP, she will establish collaboration to gain a comprehensive understanding of plant pathosystems. Her research aims to acquire fundalmental knowledge to design better control strategies against plant pathogens.

About Dr. Sánchez Vallet publications:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=de&user=lF0boTYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea_Sanchez-Vallet

Read more about Dr. Sánchez Vallet research.