Michelle Heck is a research molecular biologist and lead scientist for the Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research Unit of the USDA-ARS in Ithaca, New York. She also is an associate professor at the Boyce-Thompson Institute, School of Integrated Science, Section of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, at Cornell University in Ithaca. Her research uses a combination of molecular, genetic, and proteomics approaches to understand how insects transmit plant pathogens and how pathogens manipulate host plants to ensure replication and transmission.
Alejandro Olmedo-Velarde is a postdoctoral associate in the School of Integrated Science, Section of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He works on cotton leafroll dwarf virus and other aphid-transmitted viruses in Dr. Heck’s lab, focusing on virus-host and virus-vector interactions with the goal of producing new management approaches.
