Dr. Diener earned his B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1990 and a Ph.D. in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he worked on multiple-host pathogenesis. His laboratory studies the filamentous fungus Fusarium oxysporum for two distinct purposes: (1) to provide a molecular genetic understanding of fungal virulence and plant disease resistance, and (2) to improve fungal single cell oil accumulation, which could make fungi an alternative source of oil for biofuel production.