Neil Brown

I am a molecular fungal biologist and BBSRC Future Leader Fellow / Lecturer at the University of Bath. I am motivated to discover new ways to fight major fungal diseases that threaten our food security and health. I focus on the cereal pathogen Fusarium graminearum and the food spoilage mould Aspergillus nidulans, which produce harmful toxins that can contaminate our food. A fungal pathogen landing on a plant must decide if it is suitable, where to infect, and when to deploy different virulence strategies. The goal of this research is to discover how fungal pathogens sense the ‘touch and taste’ of their host environment. This research has the applied objective to determine if a pathogen’s sense of ‘touch and taste’ can then be targeted through the development of novel antifungals to prevent disease and toxin contamination.