Ida is a PhD student in the Forest Pathology research group at Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre since 2020. Her PhD work is led by associate professor Michelle Cleary specialized on methods for early detection of forest pathogens, including research projects:
- VOCs detection of Fusarium circinatum, or Pine Pitch Canker; a pathogen with substantial economic and societal implications for a variety of Pine species. The project will be conducted in collaboration with a Spanish forest pathology research group led by Julio Javier Diez Casero, University of Valladolid.
- VOCs detection of Agrilus anxius, or Bronze Birch Borer; a pest affecting birch species. Birch is an economically and ecologically important species in forestry in Sweden and the consequences of having the Bronze Birch Borer introduced to Swedish forests would be severe. There is therefore a need for development of a high-throughput method enabling early detection of the pest, with the long-term goal of application in nurseries and plant trade, to prevent the introduction of the pest to new areas. As also the Bronze Birch Borer is classified as a quarantine pest in Sweden, the lab work will be conducted at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
- Minion next generation sequencing device for potential in-field detection and identification of forest pathogens. Forest pathogens commonly exhibit very similar tree symptoms and it can be difficult to determine the cause of the disease only by ocular inspection. With the help of next generation sequencing tools, we have the opportunity to develop methods enabling in-field identification of pathogens by DNA-extraction and subsequent sequencing which result can be matched against databases in real-time.
