Advisory Board and Editors Plant Biotechnology
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.
Gerrit T.S. Beemster
Professor of Biology at the University of Antwerp. Member of the Flemish Science Foundation review board. Editor of the journals Journal of Plant Research, Frontiers in Plant Science and PLOS ONE
Ornella Calderini
I have a PhD from the University of Vienna, Austria, on plant MAP kinase signalling. Currently I am a staff scientist of the National Research Council at the Institute of Bioscience and Bioresources in Italy. I am curating a mutant collection of the model specie Medicago truncatula. I am using different approaches to understand gene function in several aspects of plant science (e.g development, synthesis of secondary compounds). I have an interest in characterization and valorization of local plant genetic resources.
Douglas S Domingues
I am an Assistant Professor in Plant Molecular Genetics at the "Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Brazil. My main interests are devoted to understanding gene and genome evolution in plants, working on genome-wide analyses, including transcriptional analyses of gene families relevant to plant metabolism, RNA-seq analyses in plants, as well as studies on non-coding RNAs and transposable elements.
Tushar K. Dutta
I am a Senior Scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, involved in pursuing basic and applied research in the field of Nematology and Entomology.
As an alternative to Bt Cry toxins for insect pest management, a number of novel bacterial protein toxins (Txp40, TcaB) derived from an insect-parasitic bacterium Photorhabdus akhurstii (symbiont of nematode Heterorhabditis indica) were characterized. The mode of action and pathogenesis process of these toxins were investigated in different lepidopteran insects including Galleria mellonella, Helicoverpa armigera, Spodoptera litura and S. exigua. The potential receptor proteins and their binding sites for these toxins were unravelled from the insect midgut epithelial cells.
My other research interests include molecular basis of plant-nematode interaction. Using RNAi, functional analysis of several plant parasitism processes was deciphered including the role of Mi-cpl-1 in metabolic process, FLP and NLP neuropeptides in neuromusculation process, ODR and TAX proteins in chemotaxis process, cell wall degrading enzymes and various MSP effectors in infection process of plant nematodes. I have contributed in understanding the genetic basis of nematode resistance in rice via genome-wide association mapping coupled with omics-driven strategies. I am currently pursuing genome editing research for developing nematode resistance by adopting CRISPR-Cas9 strategy in Arabidopsis, rice and tomato.
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.
Aarti Gupta
Dr. Aarti Gupta is a Research Scientist at the Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance (IGCAST), Texas Tech University.
She obtained her Ph.D in Plant Genetics and has expertise in the area of plant stress biology and plant molecular biology
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.
Camilla B Hill
Dr Camilla Hill was awarded a Ph.D. in crop biochemistry and genetics (2014) from the University of Melbourne (Australia). Her main areas of expertise are plant genetics and genomics, analytical plant biochemistry, plant phenology and plant stress physiology. She has a strong background in using molecular and quantitative genetics as well as genomics technologies (metabolomics, next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics) to understand the impact of environmental stresses on plant growth, development, and grain yield potential.
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.
Charles D Johnson
Dr. Johnson earned his BS and PhD from Texas A&M University, with an intermediate MS degree from Clemson University. He completed a postdoc at the University of Louisville, leading to his role as associate director of bioinformatics for the Center for Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the same institution. He played a foundational role in creating the statistics and bioinformatics division at Ambion/Asuragen Inc. Following this, Dr. Johnson founded BioMath Solutions LLC, a bioinformatics-focused startup specializing in software development for genomic technology firms.
Presently, Dr. Johnson serves as the Director of Genomics and Bioinformatics Service at Texas A&M AgriLife.
Julia Kehr
Professor Hamburg University, Germany
Professor Politechnic University Madrid, Spain
Group Leader Max Planck Institute Potsdam, Germany