Matthew Ryan PhD is Research Lead Biological Resources and Curator of CAB International, CABI's genetic resources collection, which includes international collections of fungus and bacteria cultures. His research centres on cryopreservation and management of microbial genetic resources. He has a special interest in the legislation and regulatory frameworks governing the handling and use of microorganisms and impacting on microbiome research including ABS (Nagoya Protocol), Biosecurity and Biosafety.
Current funded projects include an EU CSA Microbiome support project (as CoI), UK Agricentres (CHAP) and CABI funded projects (as PI). He has pioneered the application of encapsulation-vitrification and Stirling Cycle cryopreservation approaches for fungi (CryoLett 35:63-68). Current PhD students (through Imperial College London and Royal Holloway University) are working on the impacts of climate change on the coffee wilt pathogen, and development of cryopreservation regimes for recalcitrant fungi, microbial consortia and microbiome samples.
He recently lead a team of international experts in a major white paper on fungal biological resources to support International Development (WJMB DOI 10.1007/s11274-019-2709-7). Current external roles include the UK Plant Microbiome Initiative (with Rothamsted Research), the UK KTN Microbiome Special Interest Advisory Group, and on the Board of Directors of the International Alliance for Phytobiomes Research.
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