David Pires
@david1822
🎓 PhD candidate @UÉvora | 🛡️🌱 Biocontrol & sustainable nematode management | 🍄 Fungi–nematode interactions | 🧫 SynComs | 🏳️🌈 he/him | 💬 Views my own | 🔗
New paper out & the result isn't what we were hoping for. Esteya vermicola and E. floridanum reduced Bursaphelenchus xylophilus reproduction in Pinus pinaster seedlings, but not consistently disease outcomes. 📄 doi.org/10.1002/ps.7...
One more PhD chapter accepted for publication in Pest Management Science! 🎉 With this acceptance, only 1️⃣ chapter of my PhD thesis remains to be published.
Happy to see one of my micrographs of the pinewood nematode (PWN) used in an official awareness presentation prepared by the French Regional Directorate for Food, Agriculture and Forestry (DRAAF PACA), supporting outreach on PWN management. draaf.paca.agriculture.gouv.fr/sensibilisat...
🌲 Suppressing a nematode in the lab & protecting a plant are not the same thing. Key message from a seminar I gave last week: strong in vitro nematode suppression doesn't necessarily translate into consistent host protection. Bridging this gap remains a major challenge for biocontrol.
📄 New paper in Microbial Ecology How do soil microbial diversity, organic matter, & soil structure influence soilborne plant diseases? We review the mechanisms behind pathogen survival, spread, and suppression, and how management can foster disease-suppressive soils. 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s002...
📄 New paper in Microbial Ecology Our review examines how soil microbial diversity, organic matter, and soil structure influence the survival, spread, and suppression of soilborne plant pathogens. doi.org/10.1007/s002...
📈 Review just hit 10 citations under 12 months: www.researchgate.net/profile/Davi... Happy to see it’s useful and getting traction in the community. Read the paper here: doi.org/10.3390/nitr...
🎙️ Delighted to finally share my interview with @botany.one about my PhD research on plant-parasitic nematodes and sustainable pest management, reflecting on my academic and scientific journey, motivations, and more! Full interview: www.botany.one/david-pires-...
🌱 Coming this Wednesday! Really excited to share that @botany.one, the official blog of the @annbot.bsky.social, interviewed me about my PhD research, plant-parasitic nematodes, and sustainable approaches to plant health. More soon 👀 Thanks for the opportunity @caordonezparra.bsky.social!
Presented part of my PhD research at the 1st Portugal–Korea Joint Forum on Pine Wilt Disease, held in Lisbon
📢 After working behind the scenes on the project since its launch in 2023, and as I finish up my PhD, I'm officially joining @purpest-eu.bsky.social as Communication and Dissemination Officer at INIAV. Looking forward to amplifying the impact of this work across Europe! 🌱🔬
Another grotesque AI-generated image circulating on social media, undermining the very message it's supposed to convey...
When I wrote this review in 2022, the goal was simple: a useful resource for the community working on plant-parasitic #nematodes and #biocontrol. A few years on & 150+ citations (Google Scholar) later, glad to see the topic still resonates. Fully open access: 🔗 doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11101178
Happy to see the first paper I edited now published 🎉 Read “Carbohydrate dynamics in plant–fungal–nematode networks: implications for stress resilience” by Bell et al. ➡️ doi.org/10.3389/fpls...
Really rewarding to see a figure I contributed being used across Europe—supporting pinewood nematode awareness in France, training sessions in Sweden and Poland, and even official documents in Estonia and Luxembourg.
Woodland strawberry (𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢) 🍓 www.inaturalist.org/observations...
🌱 Happy #WorldPulsesDay, dedicated to raising public awareness about the power of pulses to nourish people and the planet. 🫘 📚 Check out our latest paper on pulses and their sustainable production in tropical systems 👉 doi.org/10.3390/nitr...
🌱🦠 New preprint out! What if soil is not just a passive background for plant diseases, but an active battlefield & reservoir? Our review explores how soil structure & microbiomes jointly shape the emergence & persistence of plant pathogens: doi.org/10.21203/rs.... Feedback & discussion welcome.
📈 Really happy to see my first PhD chapter getting some traction: the article has reached 200 reads on ResearchGate. www.researchgate.net/profile/Davi... 📄 Full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
🤦♂️ Am I the only one getting fed up with the proliferation of half-baked, AI-generated, and often inaccurate images on social media, and increasingly in papers?
🤖 As I approach the final months of my PhD, I decided to run a small experiment. I asked Gemini to audit my professional footprint (analyzing my Google Scholar and ORCID profiles) and predict my career trajectory for the next five years. 💭 The analysis was surprisingly detailed 👇
🌲 For 27 yrs, Europe's response to the PWN stayed the same: 🪓🔥. Millions spent on diagnostics & buffer zones, yet the #nematode spread from 🇵🇹 to 🇪🇸 and now 🇫🇷. Diagnostics matter, but aren't a cure. Time to fund solutions: biocontrol & long-term management. Buffer zones failed. Science didn't. 🔬✅
🔬 Excited to continue driving high-impact science and raising the bar for excellence at the institute in 2026. 🌍 Proud of the collaborative bridges we've built with this work, and grateful to my co-authors for pushing the boundaries of international science with me. Onwards! 🚀