Emile Gluck-Thaler
Assistant Professor
Email: gluckthaler@wisc.edu
682 Russell Labs
1630 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Learn More:
+Education
- PhD Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University
- BS Life Sciences, Microbiology Specialization, McGill University, Canada
Professional Appointments
- Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland
- Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania
- Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pittsburgh
+Research
Fungi have been evolving strategies to interact with plants, animals and other microbes for over 500 million years. Because many fungal interactions threaten food security and public health, understanding the mechanisms driving fungal interactions with other organisms is an economic and societal priority. Our research addresses this priority by asking two questions: how do fungi acquire new strategies for interacting with other organisms and when do “good” interactions turn “bad”? These questions are especially pertinent for fungal pathogens given the critical roles fungi play in plant and human microbiomes and the increasing prevalence of fungal diseases globally. Visit the Fungal Interactions Lab website to learn more about our work: fungi.cals.wisc.edu
+Courses Taught
Plant Pathology/Botany 123: Plants, Parasites and People
+Publications
Selected Publications
Gluck-Thaler, E., Forsythe, A., Puerner, C., Gutierrez-Perez, C., Stajich, J.E., Croll, D., Cramer, R.A. and Vogan, A.A., 2025. Giant transposons promote strain heterogeneity in a major fungal pathogen. mBio, 16(6), pp.e01092-25.
Urquhart, A., Vogan, A.A. and Gluck-Thaler, E., 2024. Starships: a new frontier for fungal biology. Trends in Genetics, 40(12), pp.1060-1073.
Gluck-Thaler, E. and Vogan, A.A., 2024. Systematic identification of cargo-mobilizing genetic elements reveals new dimensions of eukaryotic diversity. Nucleic Acids Research, 52(10), pp.5496-5513.