Natalia Arango Lopez

Natalia joined the Cereal Genetics and Genomics Lab as a Master’s student in August 2022. Her early research focused on understanding non-host resistance in crops, and her thesis explored natural variation in non-host disease resistance genes against rust pathogens through their functional validation in a transient expression system. In 2024, she continued in the lab as a PhD student, expanding her work on non-host resistance while also investigating the leaf rust resistance gene Lr39 in the wild wheat relative Aegilops tauschii.

Natalia earned her bachelor’s degree in Biological Engineering from the National University of Colombia, where she developed a strong interest in fungi and plant–pathogen interactions through her involvement in curating the university’s herbarium and participating in the industrial microbiology laboratory. From 2021 to 2022, she completed an internship at the National Center for Coffee Research (Cenicafé) within the genetic improvement program, contributing to the development and molecular-marker-based evaluation of Coffea arabica L. populations carrying diverse rust resistance genes.

Her research interests center on plant–pathogen interactions and rust disease resistance in wheat and its relatives.