BIO

Hi, I'm Priya, a postdoctoral research fellow at Sessa Lab! I received my Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, where I studied genes involved in pattern and effector-triggered immunity in Arabidopsis. During my Ph.D., I presented my work at national and international conferences and published my findings in peer-reviewed journals. After completing my Ph.D., I also worked in the field of abiotic stress tolerance in rice plants for a year.

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Currently, my research is focused on the newly evolved pathogen Pantoea agglomerans pv betae (Pab), which can cause galls on beetroot plants. I aim to understand the molecular changes in bacteria and plants that lead to compromised immunity in beet. To do this, I am using various molecular biology techniques to determine the role of effector proteins released by Pab into the beet plant and to understand the transcriptional changes in the beet plant during infection.