My main research interests are the processes used by filamentous fungi to degrade biomass with a focus on wood as substrate. These are particularly of interest for the generation of bioenergy from wood as renewable feedstock, but also for the development of novel fungicides.

- My goal is to aid in the optimization of lignocellulosic biomass degradation strategies using enzymes from filamentous fungi- One focus of my current work is to apply a systems biology approach to study the polysaccharide degradation and utilization strategies of the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa- In addition, I screened > 250 Neurospora deletion strains and am characterizing new factors involved in cellulose and pectin signalling and utilization

- I used micromanipulation of Xenopus oocytes for heterologous expression and activity testing of plant-derived transport proteins