Cristina Marzachì, Italy

Cristina Marzachì is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, CNR, Torino.

She got her university degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD degree in Crop Genetics both at the University of Torino, Italy.

From 1985 to 1993, she worked as temporary staff at different research institutions, among which CNR-Centro di Micologia del Terreno and CNR – Institute for Plant Virology (IVV).

She spent two year as Research Fellow at the Roche Institute  of Molecular  Biology, Nutley, NJ (USA). From 1993 to 1995 she was hired as permanent staff (Raw Material Quality Control, Flavours Section) at Ferrero SPA, Alba (CN), Italy. In 1995, she was hired as permanent staff (Researcher III) at IVV (Torino, Italy), and in 2006, she became senior researcher (Researcher II) at the same Institution where she is currently employed.

Her research interests focus on evaluation of i) virus and phytoplasma infection  on grapevine berry production, ii) factors influencing Flavescence dorée (FD) epidemics and possible strategies to overcome them, iii) effects of  elicitors of resistance / tolerance to phytoplasmas infections both on a phytoplasma model system as well as on the FD system, iv) role of phytoplasma membrane proteins in determining vector specific transmission of the pathogen.

At the moment, she is working on transcriptomic analyses of the interaction with plant and vector of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’ (chrysanthemum yellows isolate) and FD phytoplasma, in the model system ‘Arabidopsis thaliana – Euscelidius variegatus’.