Isobel Magrath

Department of Plant Sciences

Biography

I am a PhD student in the Department of Plant Sciences. My undergraduate degree was in molecular biology and microbiology. My first passion was synthetic biology, which was stoked by competing in the 2019 iGEM competition. After that, I undertook an honour's project on engineering photosynthesis in crop plants, which brought me to plant sciences. Now, my focus is on understanding how plants regulate carbon supply to fungi during plant-fungi symbiosis.

Research

I am interested in understanding how plants regulate carbon supply to fungi during arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. In particular, I focus on how carbon flux is regulated across whole plants, from leaves to roots, and what role particular cell types in these different tissues play in carbon metabolism. To study this, I use a range of approaches including single-cell sequencing.