Plant and Animal Health

I am a soft fruit researcher and blueberry breeder who has worked at the James Hutton Institute for 11 years. For the last eight years, I have focussed on developing a blueberry industry in the United Kingdom and gained a wealth of knowledge regarding cultivar performance, as well as management and environmental constraints. My current projects involve hyperspectral image analysis of plants for biotic and abiotic stresses, understanding yield instability in blueberries, mycorrhizae roles in plant establishment and enhancement of blueberry genetics.

I am Head of Animal and Veterinary Sciences in the Central Faculty and lead the Disease Systems research team.

I have a background in ecology and developed my disease systems approach through a Scottish Senior Research fellowship. My main areas of research are identifying, characterising and quantifying the key biological processes that drive disease persistence and spread in livestock production; in particular those that are sensitive to manipulation for the purpose of disease control.

I am a Professor in Food Safety. My research interests relate to interactions between microorganisms and crop plants. This includes work on food-borne bacteria that cause illness in humans and animals, and on phytopathogenic bacteria that cause disease on plants.  The aim of the work is to better understand the interactions and use the information to remove or control unwanted pathogens on plants. This ultimately contributes to human & animal health, and to plant health.

I graduated from the University of Milan in 1990 (Veterinary Medicine and Surgery) then obtained a PhD investigating the pathogenesis of experimental scrapie in 1994. I joined Moredun in 2000, after 4 years at the International Livestock Research Institute of Nairobi, Kenya, working on the immune responses to ruminant tropical protozoan diseases. From 2000 to 2014 I worked on a number of immunological projects, including analysing disease, vaccine and pregnancy related humoral and cellular responses.

My research interests relate to the sustainable control of helminth parasites (worms and fluke) in livestock. The diseases caused by these parasites are amongst the most important and prevalent endemic production-limiting diseases of livestock, and represent a significant constraint on efficient livestock production, both in the UK and globally. This involves research into novel diagnostics, vaccine studies and disease control strategies. I also have a specific interest in the monitoring and management of anthelmintic (wormer) resistance.