Dr. Marco Incarbone

I obtained my PhD at the IBMP in Strasbourg, France, researching the molecular mechanisms mediating suppression of RNA interference by viruses in plants. After a short transitional postdoc in the Ritzenthaler lab, where I developed new techniques to isolate and characterize virus replication complexes, I moved to the Gregor Mendel Institute in Vienna, Austria, as a post-doctoral fellow. Here I joined the Mittelsten Scheid lab to investigate how plant stem cells and germlines efficiently prevent virus proliferation. These potent antiviral barriers are of crucial biological importance yet remains very poorly understood. I have recently established my lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, to broaden the study of stem cell and germline antiviral immunity

Veronique Brault

After two years as Deputy Director, Véronique Brault was appointed Director of the Joint Research Unit for Grapevine Health and Wine Quality at INRAE Colmar on 1 January 2020. As a researcher specialised in plant virology, she has been studying the molecular mechanisms of virus transmission by aphids for 27 years, cementing her status as a true expert in this field.

Professor Eddie Holmes

Edward Holmes is a world-leading evolutionary biologist whose research focuses on mechanisms for virus evolution and the processes by which RNA viruses jump species boundaries and spread in new hosts. He studies the emergence and molecular epidemiology of pathogens including hepatitis C, avian influenza and dengue fever. Holmes was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2015 and of the Royal Society, London, in 2017.