Gareth Thomas and Claire Duménil (SWBio DTP students of Rothamsted Research and Cardiff University, respectively) have been awarded first and second place awards for their poster presentations at the annual Agrisciences Chemical Biology Postgraduate Symposium, Imperial College London. 

The meeting covered Chemical Biology research applied to tackle biological problems on a molecular level, including disciplines from fungal, insect and plant biology, within the context of chemistry.

Gareth’s poster was titled ‘Characterisation of Volatile Signalling from the Beneficial Soil Fungus Trichoderma hamatum’, focusing on the role of volatiles produced by the fungus in the biological control of the agronomically important crop pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Gareth’s PhD is supervised by Dr Michael Birkett, Professor John Pickett (Rothamsted Research), Professor Murray Grant (The University of Warwick) and Dr Chris Thornton (The University of Exeter).

Claire’s poster was titled ‘Host fruit selection in the invasive agricultural pest Drosophila suzukii’, focussing on the characterization of sensory neurons in this notorious pest, involved in the detection of host volatiles. Her PhD is supervised by Dr. Wynand van der Goes van Naters and Professor. William Symondson (Cardiff University), Dr. Michael Birkett, Professor. John Pickett and Dr. Jing-Jiang Zhou (Rothamsted Research).

Congratulations to both of them on their excellent news!