Kamoun is known for his contributions to our understanding of plant diseases and plant immunity. He used genomics and molecular biology methods to obtain insights into the biology and evolution of eukaryoticplant pathogens.[7] He discovered virulence effector families from plant pathogens and showed how they can modulate plant immunity.[7] He demonstrated how antagonistic coevolution with host plants has impacted the architecture of pathogen genomes, accelerated the evolution of effector genes, and drove the emergence of immune receptor networks.[7]
After his PhD, Kamoun worked at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Engineering Plants for Resistance Against Pathogens at the University of California, Davis,[8] and at the Department of Phytopathology (Wageningen University, Netherlands). He was on the faculty of the Department of Plant Pathology (Ohio State University, Wooster campus) from 1998 to 2007, before joining The Sainsbury Laboratory in 2007. He served as Head of The Sainsbury Laboratory from 2009 to 2014 and also holds the rank of professor of biology at the University of East Anglia. Kamoun served as president of the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions from 2012-2014.[9]
