Hello visitor,
This is Sandeep R. Marla, a doctoral candidate working on “genetic basis of developmentally regulated resistance in maize to a lethal fungal pathogen Cochliobolus carbonum race1”. This is my third year in Dr. Johal’s lab and hoping to be Dr. Marla before the world ends. I am also a graduate teaching assistant for Introduction to plant pathology for one semester every year. I am very passionate and fascinated about my research which always keeps me motivated to work hard. I get excited by small things in research when I accomplish something new. Moreover, I am a very simple and humble person.
I was born in the state of Telangana, India and completed all my secondary schooling in Khammam. I started my undergraduate degree in Agriculture Sciences at College of Agriculture, Hyderabad at ANGRAU in 2000 and very successfully completed it in a record time of 4½ years and achieved the best student recognition (just kidding). After such a great achievement (taking into consideration of the effort to output ratio), I travelled to United States of America to pursue a master’s program at Auburn University, AL, which turned out to be my new home and made me a true “AUBURN TIGER” for the rest of my life. I pursued my master’s degree with Dr. Robin Huettel in the department of entomology and plant pathology. After getting one more degree closer towards obtaining the highest degree,
I have decided to continue my graduate schooling and get a PhD degree. Currently, I am working on understanding the mechanism of susceptibility in maize to this devastating fungal pathogen which would have killed all the cereal crops in the world and we would have been deprived of bread, beer and biryani. However, nature has its own ways to thrive well under hostile conditions, this time it has protected all grasses by deploying the “The Hm1 gene” which protects from this pathogen, thus making this gene “a guardian of the grasses”.
I am an outdoor person, like to bike and hike but don’t get much time for these activities; hmm I blame it on mid-west winters for this time. I love playing soccer and table tennis. I am a die-hard fan of Auburn football “although I am a boilermaker now, I still bleed Orange and Blue, Boiler Up and War Eagle…”.
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