TriCal Diagnostics has hired two specialists to expand the services offered by our lab.
Senior Researcher and Nematologist Dr. Kristi Sanchez received her Ph. D. in Plant Pathology, specializing in Nematology, from the University of California, Davis. She has over a decade of combined research and field experience while working at UC Davis, the agrichemical industry, and the Plant Pest Diagnostics Center with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Kristi’s research background includes pest management of nematodes, morphological and molecular diagnostics of plant parasitic nematodes, and the development of experimental assays for nematode studies in the lab and field. With TriCal Diagnostics Kristi will be focusing on nematode sampling, detection, identification, and quantification.
Molecular Specialist Dr. Alyssa Burkhardt received her Ph. D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University where she researched resistance-associated genes in cucumber in response to downy mildew infection. As a post-doc researcher at the USDA-ARS in Salinas (Frank Martin lab), Alyssa developed RPA assays to detect major strawberry pathogens (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fragariae, Macrophomina phaseolina, Verticillium dahliae) and a qPCR assay to quantify Macrophomina in soil samples. Alyssa has nearly a decade of experience developing and running DNA-based assays. With TriCal Diagnostics Alyssa will be focusing on molecular based diagnostics and developing and optimizing DNA-based tests for diagnostics and research.
