From brewing beer to producing antibiotics, modern society relies on fungal life processes to fulfill our desires and overcome our obstacles. How about the Buckthorn problem? Can fungi help us get rid of invasive Buckthorn? This is the central question of Ryan’s research in the UMN Forest Pathology lab. Findings from the past two years of research will be presented.
Ryan Franke grew up in Eagan, MN and learned to revere the natural world at a young age. During a fall camping trip around Lake Superior in 2015, he became fascinated with fungi and shortly thereafter joined the Minnesota Mycological Society. His fascination with fungi mushroomed after joining the society, opening a gourmet mushroom cultivation business in 2017, editing the MMS newsletter from 2018-2020, and most recently joining the mycology focused Forest Pathology Lab at the UMN in 2023. Read about his researc https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/admissions/