Brande is a molecular plant pathologist and geneticist. He works in the Center for Desert Agriculture, in the Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and he is an Honorary Reader at the University of East Anglia. Prior to joining KAUST, Brande Worked as a Group Leader in the John Innes Centre (2014-2021), and as Research Manager of The Sainsbury Laboratory 2Blades Group (2010-2014). Brande conducted postdoctoral work in the IBMCP, Valencia, Spain and IBMP, Strasbourg, France (with fellowships from EMBO and HFSP). He received his PhD from The Sainsbury Laboratory in 2002.

Brande’s research program explores the genetics of disease resistance in wheat. This has led to developing fast, new and efficient methods for gene discovery and cloning which use mutant and natural populations followed by sequence alignment to locate genes. Brande has also co-developed a method for halving the generation time of wheat and other crops, in a controlled environment, dramatically speeding up capabilities for research and breeding purposes. His long-term aim is to use cloned genes from wild ancestors of wheat to engineer durable resistance to these diseases in cultivated wheat.