Advisory Board and Editors Plant Biochemistry
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.
Diego F Gomez-Casati
Dr. Gomez-Casati received his Bs in Biochemistry from the National University of Rosario, Argentine, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires. He carried out postdoctoral research at the Chascomus Institute of Technology, Argentine, and Bordeaux 2 University, France. He was a visiting Scientist at California State University, Fullerton, USA, Laboratoire Microbiologie Cellulaire et Moleculaire et Pathogenicite, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Bordeaux-2, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile and Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (Univ. Politecnica de Madrid), Spain. He was Professor of Plant Biotechnology at the National University of San Martín (UNSAM, 2000-2019). At the present, he is a researcher from the National Research Council, Argentine (CONICET), Director of the Plant & Algae Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory at the Institute for Photosynthetic and Biochemical Studies (CEFOBI-CONICET), Professor & Chair of the Biological Chemistry Department at the National University of Rosario and Vicedirector of CEFOBI.
Christophe Hano
Dr. Christophe Hano, completed his PhD in 2005 in Plant Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and is Associate Professor at the University of Orleans with research activities the ICOA Lab (UMR7311 CNRS). His research career has focused on applied plant metabolism, plant biotechnology and green (bio)chemistry.
Currently, he is developing research projects aimed at studying plant secondary/specialized metabolism to lead to the development of natural products with interests in the fields of pharmacology and/or cosmetics. In particular, his research focuses on the green extraction (NaDES) and analytical methods applied to plant polyphenols, elucidation of their biosynthetic patways and their exploitation by metabolic engineering approaches.
Mohammad Irfan
Dr. Mohammad Irfan is a plant biologist having research interests in abiotic stress biology of crop plants particularly horticultural crops. During his doctoral and postdoctoral projects, he studied the fruit quality traits affected by abiotic stresses. In his current projects, he investigates the molecular mechanism underlying plant-specialized metabolic pathways and biosynthesis of high-value phytochemicals, such as anthocyanins and carotenoids of horticultural crops under abiotic stresses using transcriptomics, metabolomics, glycomic and functional genomic approaches.
Julia Kehr
Professor Hamburg University, Germany
Professor Politechnic University Madrid, Spain
Group Leader Max Planck Institute Potsdam, Germany
Sushma Naithani
Sushma Naithani is an Associate Professor Senior Research in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University, USA. The current focus of her research is on understanding information flow in living systems and how evolution shapes this flow using systems-level pathway modeling supported by high-quality biocuration, gene-orthology-based predictions, and analysis of omics data. She serves as a senior curator for the Plant Reactome knowledgebase. Sushma has authored 31 peer-reviewed refereed research articles in high-impact journals, including Nature, Nature Biotech, PNAS, etc. One of her research papers has been selected by the 'Faculty of 1000 Biology'. In addition, she has authored six book chapters and one Open Textbook (S. Naithani (2021): History and Science of Cultivated Plants published by Oregon State University Open Educational Resources, EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-955101-08-0, available at https://open.oregonstate.education/cultivatedplants). She is also an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Plant Science-Plant Biotechnology and served as the Editor-in-chief of the Current Plant Biology (2017-2023).
Ali Noman
Dr. Ali Noman received his PhD from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China. His research and teaching interests include plant-environment Interaction, plant immune responses, and plant survival tactics under changing environments. Currently He serves as an Assistant Professor of Botany at the Government College University, Faisalabad.
He has published many papers in peer reviewed and world renowned journals, such as Science of the Total Environment, Environmental Pollution, Environmental and Experimental Botany, Chemosphere, Environmental Research and many international conferences. Dr. Noman also serves as member of editorial boards and editor for different journals.
Duangjai Tungmunnithum
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Duangjai Tungmunnithum completed her Ph.D. at Chulalongkorn University in 2016, and won the DPST Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct her Postdoctoral research in Japan at the National Museum of Nature and Science focusing on medicinal plant and phytochemistry in the same year. After completing her research in Japan, she obtained a lecturer position at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University, Thailand.
Her expertise is in biochemistry, innovative green extraction methods, biological activity both antioxidant and anti-aging from plant extracts and pure phytochemical compounds for cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications both in vitro, in vivo and in cellulo models.
According to her research profiles, she has received a large number of outstanding research both national and international levels e.g. the Junior Research Fellowship from French Government, Franco-Thai Mobility Programme 2020-2021 and LE STUDIUM Research Fellowship.
Robert Winkler
Robert Winkler is Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Biochemical and Instrumental Analysis at the CINVESTAV Unidad Irapuato and faculty member for the postgraduate programs Plant Biotechnology and Integrative Biology. His research topics include novel mass spectrometry techniques such as low-temperature plasma ionization and covalent protein staining, new approaches in the high-throughput metabolomic profiling of plants, computational mass spectrometry and proteomics.
Nasim Ahmad Yasin
Dr. Nasim Ahmad Yasin is a Associate Professor at the University of the Punjab carrying out research in the field of Horticulture and Environmental Science.
Educational background:
2021-2022: Post-Doctorate: Vegetable Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China.
2015: PhD: Institute of Agricultural Sciences: University of the Punjab Lahore.
1997: MSc. (Hon): University College of Agriculture, Rawalakot: The University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir –Muzaffarabad Azad Kashmir.
1995: BSc. (Hon): Barani Agriculture College, Rawalpindi. University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.
Humaira Yasmin
Dr Humaira Yasmin is tenured Associate professor (TTS) within the Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Her research interests include plant-microbe interactions, plant stress physiology, biofertilizers technology, soil microbiology, crop pathology, plant protection, plant biochemistry and molecular biology, medicinal plants, environmental microbiology, and agricultural nanotechnology. Dr Yasmin's research focuses on understanding the detailed biochemical mechanisms adapted by crops when exposed to biotic (fungal/ bacterial) pathogens, abiotic stresses (drought, salinity, heavy metals and heat). She is also investigating various eco-friendly and economic solutions to reduce the adverse impacts of environmental stresses on economically important crops. The techniques studied include isolation, characterization and mode of action of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Green synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles from medicinal plants and their application in agriculture to alleviate different stresses. Application of growth regulators (hormones (GA, ABA, SA, BS etc.), chelators (Oxalic acid, mellic acid etc.) and other chemical compounds to increase plant protection. Moreover, synergistic effects of the above mentioned solutions are also under consideration.
Lin Zhang
Dr. Lin Zhang is Associate professor within the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.
His research interests focus on:
1）How ectotherms (with tropical lizard as subject) linking bioenergetics and overwintering strategy during global warming
2）Macro-evolution including activity, metabolism and reproduction in squamate