Advisory Board and Editors Genetics
Diaa Abd El-Moneim
My academic journey began with an MSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Suez Canal University, where my research focused on evaluating drought tolerance and disease resistance in wheat, providing a solid foundation in abiotic stress tolerance. This early work fueled my commitment to understanding and addressing plant resilience under stress conditions. Thanks to an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, I pursued my PhD at Complutense University of Madrid, where I investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying aluminum stress tolerance in rye. Notably, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship funded by AECID just before defending my thesis—a pivotal achievement that underscored the relevance of my research. This fellowship enabled me to join the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid. I gained expertise in proteomics, gene expression analysis, and molecular tool development to improve plant abiotic stress resilience. These experiences greatly expanded my knowledge of gene regulation and stress physiology and led to high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Abd El Moneim’s research encompasses multiple domains, including the study of morphological , physiological, and molecular mechanisms that govern plant responses to stress factors such as salinity, drought , aluminum toxicity, heat, and pathogens. His work in identifying gene families and stress-responsive proteins is complemented by his efforts to apply DNA barcoding and chloroplast genomic assemblies for species identification and development of molecular markers, as well as contributing to taxonomical and evolutionary concepts and identifying transcriptional regulators critical for stress adaptation, with particular emphasis on crops like wheat and wild plants adapted to extreme environments. His methodologies include designing and analyzing field trials , protein analysis, nucleic acid extraction, fingerprinting , GWAS , and the characterization of chloroplast genomes. Dr. Abd El Moneim’s expertise in molecular breeding and genomics focuses on improving abiotic stress tolerance in staple crops, especially for agriculture in developing countries.
Md Atique Ahmed
Dr Md Atique Ahmed is at present working as a Scientist under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India at the Regional centre of Northeast India (RMRC, NE), Dibrugarh, Assam, India.
Dr Ahmed's scientific career has been dedicated to the study of protozoan parasites in humans and primates, which includes all Plasmodium species, primarily Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium knowlesi. He has genetically and functionally characterised many plasmodium invasion antigens. His research interest mainly focuses population genetics/gemomics of Plasmodium parasites.
Ludmil B Alexandrov
I am an enthusiastic early career scientist with an interdisciplinary training and a strong computational background. My interests lie in leveraging the information hidden in large-scale omics data for better understanding of the mutational processes causing human cancer, for identifying potential cancer prevention strategies, and for developing novel approaches for targeted cancer treatment.
Maria Almuedo-Castillo
I obtained the Biology degree from the University of Sevilla in June 2008. For my PhD, I then joined Drs. Saló and Adell lab at the Genetics Department of the UB. Using the planarian S. mediterranea due to its amazing regenerative abilities, I demonstrated the role of specific signaling pathways in processes that allow regeneration of a proportioned body plan. I graduated with honors in Genetics in July 2014 and for my postdoctorate I decided to join Dr. Müller laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Tübingen (Germany) in October 2014, to get an interdisciplinary training in Systems Biology and learn about Biophysics and computer modeling. In June 2015 I was awarded with an EMBO long-term postdoctoral fellowship. I studied how tissue patterns scale with embryo size using a quantitative biophysical in vivo approach. We described how embryos adjust tissue proportions to the changing size of their bodies. In June 2018 I decided to come back home and develop my independent research career in Sevilla (Spain), where I am currently working as an associate researcher at CABD (CSIC/UPO/JA). In February 2019 I obtained a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship and in June 2019, a Junior Leader grant from Fundación Social La Caixa. Here I want to implement all my interdisciplinary acquired knowledge to study the complex formation of organs from a mechanical and patterning comprehensive perspective, using as an experimental paradigm the formation of the vertebrate eye.
Maria Anisimova
Since 2014, senior research fellow and lecturer at the Institute of Applied Simulations of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). Editor of BMC Evol Biol and PLoS ONE. In 2012 edited a book in 2 volumes "Evolutionary Genomics: Statistical and computational methods".
Rodolfo Aramayo
My laboratory is centered on understanding the function(s) of RNAs, especially non-coding RNAs in all aspects of Biology. The long term objective of our work is to understand meiotic silencing in Neurospora and to map its connections with the meiotic silencing observed in other organisms.
B.S. in Molecular Biology, University of Brasilia, 1982
M.S. in Molecular Biology, University of Brasilia, 1986
Ph.D. in Genetics, University of Georgia (Athens), 1992
Postdoctoral Training, University of Wisconsin Madison, 1993
Postdoctoral Training, Stanford University, 1997
Luisa Azevedo
Researcher at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS), University of Porto, and collaborator of the Population Genetics and Evolution Group of i3S-Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde. Scientific topics include molecular basis of phenotype-genotype relationships, mechanisms underlying epistatic interactions under the compensatory mutation model, and the dynamics involved in amino acid substitution at the protein structural level.
Jürg Bähler
Jürg Bähler is a Professor of Systems Biology at University College London. His laboratory studies genome regulation during cellular proliferation, quiescence, and ageing using fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) as a model system. They apply multiple genetic, computational and genome-wide approaches for systems-level understanding of regulatory processes and complex relationships between genotype, phenotype, and environment, including roles of genome variation and evolution, transcriptome regulation, and non-coding RNAs.
Jürg Bähler is an elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and he received a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.
MK Balasubramanian
Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Singapore. Member of the editorial boards of Cytoskeleton, eLife, and Faculty of 1000. Winner of the National Science Medal Singapore.
Gianni Barcaccia
Since 2017, Dr. Gianni Barcaccia is a full Professor of Plant Genetics and Genomics at the School of Agriculture Science and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Padova (Italy) and Adjunct Professor of Plant Breeding at the University of Georgia, Athens (USA). Education: M.Sc. degree in Plant Genetics and Breeding in 1991 and Ph.D. title on Plant Reproductive Systems and Population Genetics in 1995 at the University of Perugia, Italy. Tenured Professor of Plant Genetics and Genomics at the University of Padova from 2001 to 2016.
Head of the Department of Agronomy Food Natural resources Animals and Environment (DAFNAE) at the University of Padova for the academic years 2019-2023 (www.dafnae.unipd.it). Vice-director and Coordinator of the Department Commissions for Scientific Research, Technology Transfer and Third Mission from 2014 to 2019.
Head of the Laboratory of Genomics for Plant Breeding, University of Padova. Research expertise on plant reproductive systems and barriers (male-sterility, self-incompatibility and apomixis), use of molecular markers for population genetics and genomics selection, and marker-assisted breeding. Principal investigator of BreedOmics, a laboratory service of genomics for breeding populations and for genetic identification of varieties and genetic authentication of their foodstuffs. Molecular techniques: DNA fingerprinting, SSR genotyping, SNP haplotyping, DNA barcoding, NGS sequencing (www.giannibarcaccia.com).
Dorothea Bartels
Executive Director (Head) of the Institute fof Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology of Plants (IMBIO) at the Universtiy of Bonn. Editor in Chief of Planta. Member of EMBO
Giorgia Batelli
Dr. Giorgia Batelli is a Plant Genetics Researcher at the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources. She received her Degree in Plant Biotechnology (2003) and PhD in Plant Biology and Chemistry (2007) at the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy. She studies physiological and cellular mechanisms employed by plants (Arabidopsis, Solanaceae) to respond to salt and drought stress with a focus on ABA-mediated signalling, using a variety of molecular and genetic tools.