Major advances have been made in coffee rust (Hemileia vastatrix) research at the Coffee Rust Research Centre (CIFC) in Portugal since 1955. CIFC aims to study coffee rust outside of coffee growing regions to avoid spreading new virulent races. Through pathogenicity surveys and disease resistance screening, CIFC has identified nine resistance genes (SH1-SH9) in coffee and matching virulence genes (v1-v9) in the rust pathogen. A key discovery was the identification of the Timor Hybrid, which has resistance to all known rust races and was used to breed resistant varieties such as Catimor and Sarchimor. Current research at CIFC includes characterizing the genetic variability of rust