Saïd El-Hassan is a Daphne Jackson Fellow at the University of Warwick in the School of Life Sciences.

Saïd’s background is in crop protection, and he has a BSc, Diploma and an MSc in agricultural engineering from the University of Aleppo, Syria. Saïd moved to the UK in 2000 to pursue his higher education, and here he went to the University of Reading where he completed a PhD, continuing his research in biological control of plant pathogens. After his PhD, Saïd took on a postdoctoral position at the University of Reading as a plant pathologist and two further postdoctoral positions followed.

Returning to research after a break of five years, Saïd’s two-year Fellowship is sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and is due to finish in 2024.

Saïd investigates the underlying mechanisms of pathogen biocontrol and plant growth-promotion by Trichoderma hamatum using metabolomics and transcriptomics pathways of induced natural compounds during plant-pathogen-beneficial interaction. This research is extremely important for the development of sustainable agriculture and horticulture protection and has potential to find new natural compounds/biologicals from the UK’s beneficial T. hamatum strain for improved plant growth and disease biocontrol in the agricultural and environmental systems. These beneficial microbes and their natural compounds can act as an alternative to the application of fungicides and fertilizers.

Saïd’s project is titled: Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Pathways of Induced Natural Compounds during Plant-Pathogen-Beneficial Trichoderma hamatum Interaction