Dr. Poojari is a principal scientist and adjunct professor at the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, Brock University. Dr. Poojari’s research interests include clean plant programs, plant virus epidemiology, disease management, virus-insect-host interactions and landscape genomics.
Dr. Poojari leads the Clean Plant Program for grapevines at Brock University. He also serves as a scientific advisor and member of the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Committee for the Canadian Grapevine Certification Program. His research program emphasizes the development of molecular diagnostics and innovative virus management strategies for grapevines and other horticultural crops.
Dr. Poojari is a co-Principal Investigator of the recently awarded CAD $8.9 million CASP-Field Infrastructure project, funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Fund, and Brock University, which aims to expand facilities that support the domestic clean plant program. He recently completed a multi-institutional project “CLEan plAnt extractioN SEquencing Diagnostics (CLEANSED) for clean grapevines in Canada,” funded by Genome Canada (CAD $6.2 million), which focused on developing high-throughput sequencing technologies for the detection of grapevine viruses for application in clean plant programs.
His research collaborations include partnerships with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia and the Université de Sherbrooke. Dr. Poojari’s research contributions are documented in more than 28 peer-reviewed articles, two book chapters, and numerous conference presentations and technology transfer activities. His current research focuses on developing molecular diagnostic techniques for pathogen detection, developing new microporation techniques, elucidating disease epidemiology, and designing innovative virus-mitigation strategies in grapevines and other horticultural crops.
