Spotlight: Kelly Robinson

Kelly Robinson is a PhD student at the 2Blades Group in The Sainsbury Laboratory. Kelly joined 2Blades in 2018, and her research focuses on Asian Soybean Rust (ASR), a major fungal disease of soybean caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi. One side of her research focuses on identifying and cloning novel sources of genetic resistance to ASR. The other side of her research focuses on understanding how ASR manipulates the host plants’ physiology to cause disease through pathogen-secreted proteins, i.e., effectors. Her research aims to understand the dynamics of host-microbe interactions and translate this into durable crop protection strategies in the field.

Could you explain your research in 5 words?

How ASR (Asian Soybean Rust) evades host recognition.

Okay, now in a few more words..

I study effectors in soybean rust, and we want to know how the pathogen is using effectors to evade recognition by host defense.  We use the effectors as tools to inform decisions about which resistance genes will be durable.

Could you explain one technique you use regularly?

A difficult thing about studying rust effectors is that the plant-pathogen system is difficult to work with, so we use another organism to make the protein that the pathogen would make (this is called heterologous expression).  We can then study the responses in this organism to help us identify what the effector could be manipulating in the plant to promote disease.  We can then use this information to inform how to protect the plant by helping it recognize this effector to stop the spread of disease.

What about your field of research is most exciting to you right now?

Rusts are really weird and we don’t know that much about them, so anything we find out about them is really exciting.  It’s a really difficult pathosystem to work with but is so major economically, so anything new we find out is exciting and important.

What keeps you busy when you’re not in the lab?

I like to do lots of artwork, botanical drawings, and life drawing, because I also have an art degree.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a scientist?

That’s a question I avoid - what if being a scientist doesn’t work out??  I think I did my art degree with a view to doing something more graphic design related.

What’s the most enjoyable thing about your job?

I think it’s being part of a community of people who like to ask questions and who want to try and find out the answer.

How has the 2Blades Foundation been beneficial to your work?

I think it’s really important that it connects scientists to industry to have more of an impact in solving challenges.  It’s a good vehicle to implement our research and make it meaningful.