Partner Institutions and Leaders
The BiomeHealth consortium integrates the LAQV/REQUIMTE/University of Porto (REQUIMTE/UP, Portugal), and the Wageningen University & Research (WUR, Netherlands), and the University of Bologna (UNIBO, Italy)
Institutions
WUR (Wageningen University & Research) is a leading University and research
organization in the agro-food
sector, among the 10 world's best universities, and is #1 in the world in Agriculture and Forestry. The Business Unit of Biointeractions and Plant Health as a part of
Wageningen Plant Research is a top Unit, that integrates the
Platform for plant detection. It develops research/training/services in diagnostic assays for precision pathogens detection and/or monitoring of
diseases.
REQUIMTE/UP (Widening Partner):
The University of Porto is the top-ranked Portuguese university, particularly in agrifood research, led by its Research Unit, Requimte/UP, which focuses on Green Chemistry and agro-food production. REQUIMTE/UP is surrounded by agro-industries that will be engaged as stakeholders in the BiomeHealth project. The IB2Lab group, led by Conceição Santos at Requimte/UP, has been the most active group studying pathogens (e.g., E. amylovora) from a microbiome perspective, integrating detection/diagnosis and biocontrol approaches.
UNIBO (University of Bologna): The University of Bologna is one of the largest and most active Italian and EU universities in research and technology transfer. UNIBO is involved in a wide range of projects, including H2020, Horizon Europe, and others. At DISTAL (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences), research activities cover various fields within agricultural and agro-environmental disciplines (e.g., agronomy, plant physiology, food quality) as well as agricultural engineering and economics.
Leaders
Conceição Santos (coordinator, Requimte/UP) has a collection of Erwinia spp. and local BCAs (including Trichoderma with bioactive peptaibols) that may be used in BiomeHealth. It leads the IBLab (www.ib2lab.com/) at Requimte/UP responsible for the study of pests/pathogens detection and control. It currently leads 2 international projects in phytobiomes and climate change
Francesco Spinelli (Advanced Partner Leader, UNIBO)- Ph.D., Associate Prof. has wide expertise in plant pathology, pathogen control, and crop management. He is an expert in deciphering the plant-microbe interactions mostly in fruit crops, including E. amylovora and S. vesicarium. He developed a VOC-based tool, has BCA collections, and also working with SynComs applied to crop pathogens, and crop breeding for resistance.
Bart Fraaije (Advanced Partner Leader, WUR) is a Ph.D. Scientist in Diagnostics/Phytosanitary, integrates the Business Unit Biointeractions & Plant Health (WUR) and is a plant pathologist, working on fungicide resistance and biocontrol, and acted as Programme Leader Disease Control.
Viola Kurm (Advanced Partner Leader, WUR) is a Ph.D. Researcher in Bacteriology integrating the Plant Science Group with wide expertise in DNA pathogens detection in different matrices.