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Khan Lab: Mechanisms of Fruit Diseases and Resistance

School of Integrative Plant Science| Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section

PEOPLE

Awais Khan, Associate Professor
PhD, Plant Breeding and Genetics/Plant Pathology

Office:+1 315 787 2446
Email: awais.khan@cornell.edu

Affiliation: Section of Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology; School of Integrative Plant Science; Cornell University

Research Areas: Disease resistance mechanisms, quantitative genetics, genomics and bioinformatics, rosaceous fruits, apples
Google Scholar; ResearchGate
Graduate Fields: Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology; Plant Breeding and Genetics


Current Lab Members:

Hana Feulner

Graduate Student
Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology
Email: hf332@cornell.edu

Research interest: Genetics of apple scab resistance resistance, pathogen genomics, functional validation of candidate genes

 

 

Patrick Cho

Graduate Student
Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology
Email: jhc299@cornell.edu

Research interest: Genetics and pre-breeding of disease resistance in apples

 

Jean Sabety

Graduate Student
Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology
Email: js2824@cornell.edu

Research interest: Genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying disease resistance in apple rootstocks.

 

 David Hickok

Graduate Student (Khan lab/Robbins lab)

Plant Breeding and Genetics
Email: dh564@cornell.edu

Research interest: Genetic analysis framework to map  disease resistance in germplasm repositories of out-bred perennials

 

Aafreen Sakina

Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD, Plant Breeding and Genetics
Email: as3646@cornell.edu

Research interest: Plant breeding, pathology, fire blight in apples.

 

 

 

Ricky Tegtmeier

Graduate Student
Plant Breeding and Genetics
Email: rrt48@cornell.edu

Research interest: Genetic resistance/tolerance to fire blight in apples and genetic improvement of disease resistance in apples.

 

 

Anze Svara

Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD, Plant Breeding and Genetics/ Plant Pathology
Email: as3297@cornell.edu

Research interest: Disease resistance mechanisms, apples, rosaceous fruits, genetics,  and -omics

 

 

Della Cobb-Smith

Lab Manager

Email: djc3@cornell.edu

Research Areas: Lab and greenhouse management, tissue culture, disease screening, pathogen isolation and maintenance

Hazel Fritz

Summer Scholar 2023

Research interests: Development of disease resistant pre-breeding lines of apples.

 

 

 

 

 

Lauren Ahren

Summer Scholar 2023

Research interests: Genetic mapping of disease resistance in open-pollinated mapping populations.

 

 

 

 

 



Past Lab Members:

Ian Mellon

Graduate Student
Plant Breeding and Genetics

Research interest: Population genetics of Venturia inaequalis, and fine-mapping apple scab resistance in apples

 

Alicia Serrano Gomez

Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD, Plant Breeding and Genetics

Research interest: Plant breeding, pathology, relationship of rootstocks, and root traits and tree health in apples.

 

Jugpreet Singh

Postdoctoral Researcher

PhD, Plant Breeding and Genetics

Research Areas: Quantitative genetics, genomics and bioinformatics of pathogens and host

 

Ranjita Thapa

Postdoctoral Researcher

PhD, Plant Breeding and Genetics

Research Areas: Genetics and genomics of disease resistance in apples, use of high-throughput phenotyping and machine learning for identification of different apple diseases

 

Julliany Silva

Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD, Horticultural Sciences/Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology

Research interest: Genome editing to understand resistance mechanisms of apples to fire blight and apple scab, and translating these findings to improve disease resistance in apples.

 

Elsa Desnoues

Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD, Agronomical sciences, Integrative biology

Research interest: Genetics of fire blight resistance in apple and prediction of disease incidence and severity by a combined approach of mathematical modeling and quantitative genetics.

 

 


Visiting Scientists:

Shahid Iqbal Awan

Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD, Plant Breeding and Genetics

Research interest: Genomics and genetics of apple scab resistance in apples.

 

David Papp

Miklos Faust scholar

Szent István University (SzIU), Budapest, Hungary

Research interest: Host genetic resistance to apple scab in wild Malus species.

 

Liqiang Gao

Visiting Scientist

Northwest University, Shaanxi, China

Research interest: Characterization of virulence of apple scab fungus (Venturia inaequalis).

 


Summer Scholars/Research Assistants:

Aliyah Brewer

Summer Scholar 2022

Research interests: Genetic mapping of fire blight resistance.

 

Yuxing Niu

Summer Scholar 2022

Research interests: Relationship between root system architecture of apple rootstocks on fire Blight susceptibility.

 

Sarah Duber

Summer Scholar 2022

Research interests: Effects of rootstocks and grafted scions on root system architecture in apples.

 

Mathew Bruno

HWS  Intern Summer 2021

Research interests: Allele mining for fire blight and apple scab resistant genes/QTLs.

 

Nicholas Streb

Summer Scholar 2021

Research interests: Coevolution of Venturia Inequalis and Malus, genetic and geographic mapping of apple scab

 

Hannah Goldberg

Summer Scholar 2020

Research interest: Phenotyping and genetics of leaf morphological traits in apples, genetic resistance/tolerance of apples to fire blight

 

Angela Chen

Summer Scholar 2019

Research interest: Disease phenotyping and genetics of to fire blight resistance in apples.

 

Zach Guillian

Summer Scholar 2019

Research interest: Image based disease identification.

 

Marina Fandaros

Summer Scholar 2017

Research interest: Methods for high throughput resistance phenotyping, characterization of disease progression and early disease detection

 

Rachel Baschieri

Summer Scholar 2017

Research interest: Pathogen diagnostics, development of LAMP assay for fire blight detection in apple orchards.

 

Elliot Guerra-Blackmer

Summer Scholar 2017

Research interest: Field detection assay for Erwinia amylovora, and genetics resistance of apples against fungal and bacterial pathogens

 

David Strickland

Research interest: Race specific and broad-spectrum resistance to Venturia inaequalis, the causal agent of apple scab and population genetics of fungus.

 

Mason Clark

Technician

Research interest: Lab management and bacterial genomics

 

Jack Fabrizio

Technician

Research interest: Modulation of apple scions’s response to diseases by rootstocks

 

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