by Pablo Olivera Firpo with Annie Harvieux
The UMN Department of Plant Pathology is delighted to announce that Jyoti Saini Sharma will be promoted to a Researcher 5 position in Olivera Firpo Lab.
Dr Sharma joined Olivera’s group as a postdoctoral researcher in February 2022. She took the research lead in an MITPPC-founded project aiming to develop a set of molecular markers to identify hybrid barberry (Berberis x otawensis) from their parental species (European and Japanese buckthorn). After completion of this project, Jyoti is leading another MITPPC-founded project focused on the identification of the species in the crown rust complex that infect common buckthorn in Minnesota and their relative prevalence and assess their effect in suppressing the growth of buckthorn seedlings under controlled and field conditions. In collaboration with Cereal Disease Laboratory researchers, Jyoti is also working on mapping stem rust resistance genes in the highly resistant durum wheat ‘Iumillo’.
In addition to research, Jyoti is playing a critical role as a lab manager and as a trainer of the graduate students at Olivera’s lab.