Julianna I.O. Piat (she/her)

Julianna undertook her PhD in Gail’s lab investigating the effect of temperature on bacterial pathogens of common bean (Pseudomonas syringae pv phaseolicola and syringae). She identified a link between tolerance to reactive oxygen species and temperature. This is interesting because reactive oxygen species production is key to plant immunity, she examined the genetic and metabolic changes underlying this cross-talk.  

Outside of the lab, she enjoys gardening. She first gained an appreciation for plants when she lived in Norway as a teenager before she went back to her home country France for high school. She then moved to Oxford where she graduated with a BA in Biological Sciences. In 2017, she enrolled into Oxford’s Interdisciplinary Bioscience Doctoral Training Programme (graciously funded by UKRI-BBSRC) and joined the Preston lab. 

Julianna undertook an exciting outreach project on the impact of Dutch Elm Disease, which resulted in a permanent exhibit at Harcourt Arboretum.