Filion, Martin
Associate Professor;
Director of the Plant Pest Containment Laboratory
“Impossible only means that you haven’t found the solution yet.”
Martin Filion obtained his Ph.D. in 2002 from McGill University following undergraduate and graduate studies at the Université de Montréal, QC, Canada. Between 2002 and 2003 he performed postdoctoral research at the Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale. From 2003 to 2019, he was a professor in the Department of Biology at the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick and, in 2010, he was also a visiting professor at Utrecht University, Netherlands. He was a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada from 2019 to 2024. Joining McGill University in 2024, he is an associate professor in the Department of Plant Science and Director of the Plant Pest Containment Laboratory.
Professor Filion serves on the editorial and advisory boards of multiple scientific journals, including Phytopathology, Frontiers in Microbiology and Applied and Environmental Microbiology. In the last 20 years, research projects conducted in his laboratory have looked at various aspects of molecular plant-microbe interactions, with a special focus on the development of plant-beneficial Pseudomonas species as microbial inoculants for the agricultural sector. His research team has made significant progress toward understanding the functional mechanisms used by these bacteria to protect plants from diseases, promote plant growth and improve their resilience to climate change.
- B.Sc. Biology (Université de Montréal)
- M.Sc. Biology (Université de Montréal)
- Ph.D. Plant Science (McGill)
The long-term goal of Professor Filion's research program is to study and characterize plant-beneficial bacteria at the ecological, functional, and molecular levels, to ensure their successful use as biological control agents against plant diseases, and/or as biofertilizers to promote plant growth and improve resilience to climate change. Among the different microorganisms that display biocontrol and biofertilizer abilities, his research team has developed a unique expertise on plant-beneficial Pseudomonas species. To favor large-scale implementation of these Pseudomonas species in agroecosystems, his team studies key factors such as plant/soil colonization, in situ expression of biocontrol and biofertilization mechanisms and environmental impact and persistence. Using comparative genomics and reverse genetics as powerful tools to study functions and mechanisms in Pseudomonas strains, Filion's research program helps bridge the gap between laboratory-scale results and efficiently deploying beneficial Pseudomonas species in the field. It covers the whole spectrum, from fundamental to applied research, to promote the use of microbial inoculants as alternatives to chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture.
Professor Filion is currently studying the biological control of plant pathogens, comparative genomics of plant-beneficial bacteria, promoting plant growth through targeted microbial inoculation, and improving resilience to climate change using microbial technology.