Faculty
Assistant Professor of Plant Science | Principal Investigator of the Cereal Genetics and Genomics Lab
B2/R3275
Simon Krattinger obtained his PhD in 2009 from the University of Zurich (Switzerland). After spending three years as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at CSIRO Plant Industries in Canberra (Australia), he became an independent group leader at the University of Zurich supported by an Ambizione early career grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2017, Krattinger joined the Center for Desert Agriculture at KAUST as Assistant Professor.
Krattinger's research focuses on cereal genomics and plant-pathogen interactions. His group develops genomic approaches to unravel the genetic and molecular basis of stress adaptation in cereals, with a particular interest in the perception, signaling and response to fungal pathogens in wheat. Cereal crop plants are of paramount importance to ensure global food security. Disturbances caused by pathogens, pests, and adverse climatic conditions pose a constant threat to cereal production. Research on the fundamental molecular processes that make certain cereal plants resilient to these stresses (including the genetic and molecular basis of stress perception, signaling, and adaptation) is therefore of uttermost relevance.