Anne Bates, Senior Research Technician
Brief Curriculum vitae
Career
- Senior Research Technician, Epidemiology and Modelling Group, Department of Plant
Sciences, University of Cambridge (2003 - )
- Chief Research Technician Chrystallography Group, Department of Biochemistry,
University of Cambridge (2002)
- Biology Technician at St. Mary's School, Cambridge (2002)
- Research Technician in the Molecular Marker Lab of the Wheat Technology Group, Monsanto (Previously PBI Cambridge) (1990 - 2001)
Education
- HNC Applied Biology Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (1981)
Research interests
I am responsible for the laboratory and growth room areas. I maintain the culture collection and carry out experimental work in the laboratory, growth rooms and occasionally the field.
- The laboratory work involves tissue culture techniques and ELISA assays (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assays) for quantification and visualization of soil-borne fungal plant pathogens. PCR techniques should soon be available also.
- At the moment I am spending a lot of my time optimizing ELISA assays with different media such as pure media, sand and soil and using Rhizoctonia solani infected chopped potato soil as a source of inoculum.
- Most of the work involves monitoring the spread of Rhizoctonia solani in radish populations contained in microcosms or in a tissue culture environment using agar dots or sterilized seed as a nutrient source. These experiments produce spatial maps of disease spread, which are used to test epidemiological models, to identify criteria for invasion, and optimize control strategies. Current control strategies include biological control of Rhizoctonia solani using the fungal antagonist Trichoderma harzianum.
