Buisman developed the inoculation method for screening large numbers of elm plants for resistance, and in 1932 discovered the generative form of the fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi.

She completed her secondary education at the local gymnasium in 1919, after which she studied Biology in Amsterdam, her main interest at that time being marine flora.

During 1923–24, Buisman joined practical courses at the phytopathology laboratory “Willie Commelin Scholten” in Baarn, a small town near Amsterdam.

[2] The laboratory was accommodated in the leafy Villa Java alongside the Centraal Bureau voor Schimmelcultures (fungiculture) (CBS), where Buisman also worked as an assistant.

In 1927, she succeeded in producing both vascular discolouration and leaf wilt, simply by inoculating her trial plants earlier in summer than Bea Schwarz had done in 1921, confirming the results achieved by Wollenweber and Stapp in Berlin, providing the definitive proof that Graphium ulmi caused Dutch elm disease (DED).

[1] During Buisman's stay in the US, the threat posed by DED in the Netherlands was taken more seriously and, in February 1930, a second attempt led to the founding of the Committee for Study and Control of the Elm Disease.

Although the 'Christine Buisman' elm didn't meet expectations concerning its growth habit, and appeared to be susceptible to Coral Spot fungus, Nectria cinnabarina, many mature specimens still survive in the Netherlands, England and the US as living proof of her achievement.