Safaa Kumari (; born 1963) is a
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
n born plant virologist. She is known for developing a disease resistant variety of
faba bean
''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Vari ...
that is resistant to the
faba bean necrotic yellows virus (FBNYV).
Life
She was born in 1963 in Aleppo. She was brought up in
Aleppo
Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
and she has several siblings.
Between 1982 and 1985 she was at
Aleppo University where she studied in the faculty of Agriculture.
She began work looking at a virus that has been spreading from
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
and it affects the important food plants of
lentils
The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...
,
faba beans and
chickpeas
The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, cultivated for its edible seeds. Its different types are variously known as gram," Bengal gram, garbanzo, garbanzo bean, or Egypt ...
. This is devastating for low income families who rely on these beans to be their "poor man's meat". Oddly the cause is linked to climate change. The changing temperatures encourages the aphid population to boom and these aphids spread the virus much more widely.
[ She discovered a faba bean variety that was resistant to faba necrotic yellow virus (FBNYV).][
She was living in Aleppo during the war in Syria. She had left to attend a conference in Addis Abbaba when she was told that her family were on the run. Her family had been given ten minutes to leave their home. She decided to risk her life by travelling to Damascus and then driving to rescue the disease resistant seeds. The seeds had been stored at her sisters residence and it was in the centre of Aleppo. She collected the seeds and then travelled to Lebanon.][ Her next task was to take the resistance traits that she had found and transfer them to a productive variety.
She immediately set to work in her new home, and also dove into the ]yellow rust
Wheat yellow rust (''Puccinia striiformis'' f.sp. ''tritici''), also known as wheat stripe rust, is one of the three major wheat Rust (fungus), rust diseases, along with Stem rust, stem rust of wheat (''Puccinia graminis'' f.sp. tritici) and Le ...
and stem rust
Stem rust, also known as cereal rust, black rust, red rust or red dust, is caused by the fungus ''Puccinia graminis'', which causes significant disease in cereal crops. Crop species that are affected by the disease include bread wheat, durum wh ...
situation in Lebanon. During this time she put together definitive evidence that Ug99 had not yet reached the country.[ In the same month as her award, researchers announced that the FBNYV virus had been observed in Spain.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumari, Safaa
1963 births
Living people
People from Aleppo
Virologists
21st-century Syrian women scientists
21st-century Syrian scientists
University of Aleppo alumni
Syrian phytopathologists