Welcome to the MYC-robial lab

The Chen lab studies the ecological mechanisms underpinning microbe-mediated pathogen protection (microbial biocontrol) using high throughput tools and bioinformatic analyses.

In the wild, plants live among thousands of microbes which include pathogens- yet most plants are not sick. This is in part due to the role that host-associated microbes have in pathogen suppression. In the Chen lab we study the ecological mechanisms through which root-associated microbiota suppress or prevent establishment of invading pathogens. We use custom 3D printed tools (e.g. MYCroplanters) to conduct high throughput experiments on plants, and use a variety of ecological and bioinformatic analytical approaches to predict when and why microbial biocontrol treatments are effective.