Welcome to our lab!
The lab of Daniel Croll wants to understand how pathogens evolve to cause disease. For this, we mainly focus on major crop pathogens and investigate mechanisms of rapid adaptation. We are interested how host resistance mechanisms have been circumvented, pesticides become ineffective and how pathogens are able to cope with climate challenges. We take a broad view in our work and have strong interests in evolutionary processes at all levels from transposable elements to genomes and broad species comparisons. We also have a passion for projects related to conservation genomics. We combine computational work with empirical analyses from the field to the bench.
We are at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and run the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics
Check here for news or our blog. Interested in working with us? Please check out our openings or get in touch.
Highlights
Our Research focus
Many of the world’s staple crops are vulnerable to the emergence of new pathogens. Our group investigates how pathogens emerge on crops, gain virulence and reshape their genome in the process.
Meet our team
We are a diverse group of people combining skills in evolutionary biology, microbiology, bioinformatics and genomics. We also like to laugh and have fun.
News from the lab
Publication
Award / Degree
People
Event
Other
8 June 2026
We highlight now tools developed by lab members. See Tools.
1 June 2026
Welcome Gabriel Dessiex! He is starting his PhD in collaboration with Agroscope.
6 March 2026
A big welcome to Sam joining us for a postdoc! Check out his blog posts here.
2 Feb 2026
A very warm welcome to Carlos, Ghizlane and Théophile joining us for postdoc projects! Check out their blog posts here.
5 Dec 2025
We had a wonderful Christmas dinner together. So tasty raclette!
1 Dec 2025
A very warm welcome to Jigisha joining us as a postdoc! Check out her blog post here.
28 Nov 2025
We went on a wonderful lab retreat to the Jura mountains. Check out the blog post.
26 Nov 2025
Daniel was invited to visits in China. Check out the blog post.
5 Nov 2025
A very warm welcome to Melanie, Benjamin, Raissa and Joris! Very excited to have you with us.
1 Oct 2025
We recently published papers in Microbiome, Nature Comms, PLOS Biology, Trends in Microbiology & more. Congrats to all authors! Check out our publications
5 May 2025
Sarai started her BRIDGE postdoc in our lab today. Welcome back!
1 May 2025
Big congrats to Anouk van Westerhoven from Wagening University for defending her PhD thesis today!
2 April 2025
Also Sarai obtained her PhD! Big congrats!! Check out our blog
28 March 2025
Huge congrats to Guido for successfully obtaining your PhD! We are so proud of you!! Check out our blog
28 Feb 2025
Alice Laigle shared one of her beautiful watercolour paintings of an Armillaria ostoyae mushroom. Check it out
25 Feb 2025
Guido Puccetti successfully passed his thesis exam! Big congrats (almost) Dr. Puccetti!
14 Feb 2025
Multiple fellowship applications under review. Thanks all for your interest and fingers crossed!
15 Jan 2025
Two PhD defenses scheduled for the coming months. Big final push and we can celebrate!
10 Dec 2024
Celebrated wonderful Christmas events with the lab and institute. Thanks to everyone for making this a wonderful 2024!
27 Sep 2024
Luzia is now officially a Dr.! Big congrats and all the best in Holland with your postdoc!
8 Jul 2024
Congrats Sabina, Alice F and Emile for your new paper in Nature Comms! Check it out
5 Jul 2024
Examiner for three PhD exams in one week! Big congrats to all the new doctors!
1 Jul 2024
Big congrats Luzia for an amazing PhD exam!
11 Jun 2024
We have just hosted ISCLB2024!
19 Mar 2024
Gholam-Hossein Jowkar successfully defended his PhD thesis today! Big congrats Dr.!
13 Feb 2024
It was a big day for Vinciane! Big congrats for your amazing PhD!
24 Jan 2024
We are very excited to co-organize ISCLB2024 in Zurich! Check out the website
21 Dec 2023
Big congratulations to Vinciane Monod for a very successful PhD exam!
8 Dec 2023
We had a wonderful Christmas dinner together. Thanks to everyone for making this a wonderful 2023!
7 Nov 2023
The last days, Hanna, Leen, Toby and Anik had papers accepted for publication. Congrats all of you! Check out the preprints
2 Nov 2023
Our lab went for the annual retreat near the beautiful Creux du Van. Sadly the weather was not the best, but we had a great time together!
18 Aug 2023
We sadly had to say good-bye to Sami, our amazing fellowship postdoc from Colombia, and Cristela, our fantastic apprentice. We’ll miss you!
17 July 2023
We celebrated Ana Rodriguez EMBO short-term stay with our lab for the past three months. It was great hosting you!
16 July 2023
Four preprints are newly out on bioRxiv. Amazing work led by Leen, Luzia, Simone and Hanna! Check out our publications
9 May 2023
Emile Gluck-Thaler will move on to a faculty position in Wisconsin-Madison. Huge congrats!! We’ll sorely miss you! Check also the blog
9 May 2023
Congratulations to Wided Abdedayem from the National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia to win a scholarship to pursue a year of your PhD with us!
8 May 2023
Huge congrats to Leen for successfully obtaining your PhD! We are so proud of you!! Check out our blog
26 April 2023
We had a great meet-up with Greg Bonito from MSU - thanks for passing by!
6 March 2023
Great to see so many colleagues at ECFG16 in Innsbruck! Awesome talks & posters by our lab!
24 February 2023
Our 1000 pathogen genome paper just came out in Nature Communications. Check it out
15 February 2023
A bunch of our lab went for an awesome ski trip to La Berra! Jealous :-)
14 February 2023
Big congrats to Ursula and Hadjer having together three papers published! Check out our publications.
1 February 2023
Hadjer gave a wonderful PhD public presentation. Congrats Dr. Bellah - very proud!
1 February 2023
Welcome to Tobias Baril joining our lab today for a postdoc. Very excited to host you!
14 November 2022
Both Leen Abraham and Hadjer Bellah successfully passed their PhD exams recently - Big congrats! We are very proud of you!
3 November 2022
Alice Laigle is starting her PhD in our lab - welcome!
19 October 2022
Little celebration after our “lab data clean-up / reorg” session. Tasting amazing dishes from everyone’s home country.
3 October 2022
A very warm welcome to Sami, Margarida and Ivan joining our lab these days!
30 September 2022
Emile organized a wonderful little trip to see the spectacular waterfall of the Doubs river. Check out our blog.
18 July 2022
We have some amazing new PhD students and postdocs joining our lab in autumn. Stay tuned!
16 June 2022
Open PhD and postdoc positions in the lab! See above please.
9 June 2022
Big congrats to Sami Sayer from Colombia for being awarded a postdoctoral scholarship to join us in autumn!
2 June 2022
Emile helped put together the amazing CanFunNet22 conference happening now! Hadjer and Daniel gave talks.
13 May 2022
Alice, Guido and Daniel attended their first physical conference in a long time! The ISCLB22 in Tunisia was amazing.
28 April 2022
Robert Waterhouse (UNIL) gave an excellent institute seminar. Thanks for spending time with us!
29 March 2022
Ursula Oggenfuss gave her public presentation and is now Dr. Oggenfuss!
15 March 2022
Awesome PhD defence by Ursula Oggenfuss today. Congratulations!
9 March 2022
Daniel has been nominated as a Full Professor effective in 2023. The biggest thanks to all the amazing lab members who made this possible.
17 Feb 2022
Big congrats to Vinciane for getting your PhD!
28 Jan 2022
We are restarting now our regular group meetings. Looking very much forward to a wonderful 2022 with an amazing lab!
17 Dec 2021
A big month for Leen and Ursula winning a Doc.Mobility and Postdoc.Mobility grant, respectively! Warmest congratulations for these amazing feats!
9 Dec 2021
Congratulations Sabina for your paper now officially published in MBE!
16 Nov 2021
Lea Stauber has just won an award for her PhD thesis!
5 Nov 2021
Fantastic PhD defence by Vinciane Mossion - congrats!
15 Oct 2021
Congrats Nikhil for getting your PhD!
17 Sep 2021
Congratulations Ursula for your paper coming out in eLife today!
3 Sep 2021
Happy to see our Opinion piece out today in Trends in Genetics.
1 Sep 2021
Welcome to Emile Gluck-Thaler joining our lab as a Marie Curie postdoc!
30 Aug 2021
Congratulations Ursula, Nikhil and Ben for your recently accepted publications!
25 Aug 2021
Our tasty international apéro is happening!
2 Aug 2021
A very warm welcome to Hanna Glad starting her PhD in our lab!
21 June 2021
We went on a cool litte walk. Fun without Zoom!
10 June 2021
Our paper showing how sequence rearrangements can be predicted is out in Nature Communications. Here’s a blog post summarizing our work.
10 June 2021
Congratulations Hanna Glad for an awesome MSc thesis & presentation today!
31 March 2021
Here’s our contribution to the analysis of the Zambian wheat blast outbreak on Zenodo DOI
13 March 2021
We went on a hike to Mürren. Great to spend some time together outdoors.
5 March 2021
Our paper on chestnut blight emergence is now out in eLife
5 February 2021
Congratulations to Lea Stauber for passing her PhD defence!
4 January 2021
Happy New Year everyone!
15 December 2020
We celebrated our lab at a little outdoor event.
19 September 2020
Welcome to our MSc students Hanna, Laetitia, Nicolas, Fanny, Elizabete and Sara!
13 July 2020
Our lab went on outdoor trip!
1 July 2020
Welcome to Sabina Tralamazza joining us as a postdoc.
1 May 2020
Welcome Alice Feurtey! She joins us as a postdoc in collab. with the ETH.
16 March 2020
Our lab is now in home office with plenty of Zoom and Slack going on. We wish you all the best out there and hope to meet you soon in person again. Take care and stay healthy!
1 March 2020
Welcome back Simone Fouché! She joins us as a new postdoc.
21 February 2020
Our paper on deleterious mutations in ibex is now out in Nature Communications.
15 January 2020
Our paper on pathogen trade-offs is now out in The ISME Journal.