Supervisors: Prof. Alberto Pardossi and Dr. Susanna Pecchia
Research field: Plant Pathology
Research interests: Halophytes, plant pathology, Fungi, Oomycota, mycotoxins
Department head office, via del Borghetto, 80, Pisa
emiliano.dellicompagni@phd.unipi.it
Emiliano started his scientific career at the University of Teramo, where he graduated as BSc in Biotechnology in 2016. Subsequently, in 2019, he graduated as MSc in Plant and Microbial Biotechnology, at the University of Pisa. Here, he moved his first steps into the plant pathology world and had the opportunity to carry out his master thesis at the department of Plant Pathology and Forest Mycology at SLU in Uppsala, Sweden. During his stay, he investigated the effects of biocontrol agents on the genetic resistance of the Septoria blotch agent, Zymoseptoria tritici, towards chemical fungicides. Thanks to his experience, gained during trainings at the University of Pisa and the master thesis, he developed lots of skills in mycology, starting from the morphological identification of fungi to the phytopathological diagnostic.
Currently, he is a PhD student at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Pisa. His PhD topic is what he knows the best: plant pathology. Particularly, the focus of his project is the description of novel fungal diseases occurring on hydroponically grown halophytic crops. This represents a unique and interesting topic since halophytes (i.e. salt-tolerant plants) are now being rediscovered as promising novel functional foods. His research arises from the urge to fill the gap about the susceptibility of such crops towards infectious diseases. Moreover, his work is not limited to fungi but will include other pathogenic organisms like Oomycota and will investigate the potential contamination by mycotoxins and mycotoxigenic fungi as well.
