Simon Wiliams
My main research interest is plant immunity, with a focus on using structural biology and protein biochemistry to understand how plant pathogens cause disease, and those that plants employ to recognise pathogens and activate defence responses. I completed my undergraduate degree and subsequent PhD at Flinders University. During my PhD, I developed protein expression and protein biochemistry approaches to characterise the activation mechanisms of plant disease resistance proteins that belong to the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs) protein family. In 2009, I moved to the University of Queensland to work with Professor Bostjan Kobe utilising structural biology approaches to NLR protein function. I’m now working at the Australian National University, funded by an ARC DECRA Fellowship, in the wheat biosecurity laboratory (http://www.wheatbiosecurity.com) of Assoc. Prof. Peter Solomon (http://biology.anu.edu.au/people/peter-solomon). I’m currently looking to understand the structural basis of the interactions between wheat and necrotrophic fungal pathogens.
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