My research programme is focused on developing control strategies for the protection of cereal and potato crops from diseases. To achieve these goals an extensive field trialling programme is combined with a detailed target pathogen population approach, with successful strategies relayed through to commercial production practises. Key achievements from this have been the successful detection of fungicide resistance and virulence amongst the primary fungal diseases of wheat and barley in Northern Europe. These findings have been pivotal in the continued control of the most economically destructive pathogens of Irish cereal and potato crops. Through close collaboration with crop researchers, advisors, the ag chemical industry, and seed companies, both at a national and international level, annual control strategies are guided by our findings.

Research Interests Analytical chemistry: Chromatographic separations, sample purification, mass spectrometry, biosensors and immunoassays. Residue analysis: Agrochemical, environmental, natural toxins and medicinal adulterants. Databases: Coordinator of Ireland’s “National Food Residue” and “Veterinary Drug and Feed Additive” Databases. Exposure and Risk Assessment: Exposure and risk assessment to contaminants from food. Education Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry (University College Cork) B.Sc. Industrial Chemistry (University of Limerick)

Education: “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania – BSc in Biochemistry, 2016 “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania – MSc in Molecular Genetics, 2018 University of Hertfordshire, UK – PhD in Crops Protection, due 2022 Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Teagasc, Oak Park, Carlow With a background in biochemistry, Diana started to develop a keen interest in plant pathology while working on determining the population diversity of Zymoseptoria tritici in Ireland for her master thesis in molecular genetics. Therefore, she continued with a PhD in crop protection, working with a different fungal pathogen, Pyrenopeziza brassicae, the causing agent of light leaf spot of brassicas. Her PhD thesis is focused on assessing the fungicide sensitivity status of this pathogen in Ireland by establishing a collection of fungal isolates from commercial crops all over Ireland, determining the level of sensitivity to the main classes of fungicides used to control this pathogen and identifying the mechanism of fungicide resistance present in the Irish populations. This approach will help improve the disease control programme by determining if the control should focus on a field, region or national basis. Following her PhD, as the project aligns with her interests in plant protection and food safety, she joined the Mycotox-I project, being involved in the pre-harvest surveys of mycotoxin and fungal contamination of grain, identification, characterisation, detection and quantification of toxigenic Fusarium fungi, as well as developing a Fusarium biobank.

Dr Thilini M Jayasinghe is currently work as post-doctoral research fellow in Teagasc, Ash Town. She has over 8 years’ experience in analytical chemistry specialization in food and environmental contaminants i.e. Mycotoxins and antibiotic residues, method validation and optimization using LC- MS/MS. Dr Thilini is author or co-author of a book and more than 35 articles in peer review journals. Her publications received ca. 200 citations and her H-factor is 9 (Google Scholar). She was a former post-doctoral fellow of the IPREM, Pau, France entitled on “The emerging antibiotics residues in aquatic food webs in Southern Asia: a future challenge without borders" granted by MOPGA (Make Our Planet Great Again) funding program by Campus France.