CV Paula Alepuz 

I studied Chemistry at the Universities of Alicante and Valencia, Spain, where I graduated with a distinction. In 1997, I obtained a Doctorate in Chemistry with Cum Laude from the University of Valencia. In my thesis, under the supervision of Dr Francisco Estruch, I characterised a new gene from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which encodes a protein involved in the genetic response to different environmental signals. During my PhD, I spent 5 months at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) in the laboratory of Dr Kyle Cunningham, where I completed part of my studies. From 1998 to 2001 I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna (Austria) in the laboratory of Dr Gustav Ammerer, funded by a long-term EMBO fellowship. During this time we discovered that the yeast MAPK Hog1, homologous to human p38, when activated in response to stress, binds to numerous genes in the nucleus and promotes the cell's transcriptional response. Our results were published in Molecular Cell, and during a second postdoctoral period at the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain) in the laboratory of Dr Francesc Posas, I was able to continue this project and we published articles in the EMBO Journal and Nature showing that Hog1 bound to genes recruits specific transcription factors and RNA polymerase II to activate transcription.

My career as an independent researcher began at the end of 2003, when I obtained a contract from the competitive Spanish Ramón y Cajal programme and returned to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Valencia. In 2009, I was appointed as a tenured university professor. In 2011 I was a visiting researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, where I started collaborating with Dr Per Sunnerhagen, and since 2023 I have been a full professor at the University of Valencia. I lead the Eukaryotic Gene Expression: from DNA to Protein (EGE: DtoP) group, where we study gene expression with an integrated approach to the different stages, mainly gene transcription and mRNA degradation and translation. In recent years, we have focused our efforts on the function and targets of the translational elongation factor eIF5A, an evolutionarily conserved factor essential in all eukaryotic cells and implicated in diseases such as cancer, viral infection and ageing. In recent years, we have described the peptide motifs under the control of eIF5A, found new target proteins in yeast and mammalian cells, such as formins and collagens, that require eIF5A for their synthesis, and unravelled a molecular mechanism by which eIF5A controls mitochondrial function. Most of our work is done in collaboration with national and international scientific groups and are the result of the efforts of many PhD, Master's and graduate students.

As a summary of my research, I have published around half a hundred scientific articles, I have presented more than 60 communications at conferences, I have given invited lectures at different research centres in Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, I have directed 13 national or local research projects and I have participated in another 10 projects, 3 of them international, I am currently a secondary proposer of the European action COST Translacore. I am a member of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM) and of the national research networks RNA Life and Spanish Yeast Network (REDIL). I also regularly review scientific manuscripts in journals such as Nature Communications, NAR or PNAS, among others. I am an editor of the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology and I regularly carry out evaluation tasks for national bodies such as the National Agency for Evaluation and Prospective Studies (ANEP) and the Andalusian Agency for Knowledge (DEVA-AAC), and international bodies such as the European Commission and national evaluation agencies, private foundations or universities in Poland, Uruguay, Belgium, Sweden, the UK or Austria. I have also been actively involved in teaching, management and training activities at the University of Valencia, where I have supervised doctoral theses, master's and bachelor's theses and many undergraduate laboratory placements.

I have combined the tasks of researcher and professor with those of mother. I have had two interruptions in my work due to the birth and bringing up of my daughter (2005) and son (2010).

Finally, I participate in the tasks of scientific dissemination to society through articles at different levels, interviews with local newspapers or television stations, lectures in highschools and primary schools, and the promotion of research among students, especially girls, through lectures and experiments in schools.

Código ORCID: 0000-0003-1472-2373

Researcher ID: F-7849-2016

Scopus Author ID: 6603311983

Baltasar Escriche is the Director of the Master in Research in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Genetics and Secretary of the Doctoral Program in Biomedicine and Biotechnology at the University of Valencia, and belongs to the BTLab team from the research group of Biotechnological Control of Pests (CBP), http://www.cbp.com.es/. He has a positive evaluation of 5 sexennial research periods and the single transference called the sexennial period. Google Scholar provides him 3504 citations, with 32 value for the h-index and 53 value for the i-index.

Several aspects of Bacillus thuringiensis have been studied, with a continuous interest in discovering new bioactive proteins and improving the characterization of the already identified. New agents are essential to be prepared for resistance and to broaden the application of bioagents. The main part of the research has focused on Lepidoptera, because of the most common activity of Bt pesticidal proteins, but research with Coleoptera has also been implemented. Understanding the mode of action of each Bt protein, conventional and new proteins, is the key to their optimal use and preventing the selection of resistant populations. He has spent more than 30 years on this purpose, and still, each day, is finding surprising aspects. He contributed to more than 80 publications, mostly in open access, and 150 meeting presentations that can exemplify some of these aspects. He has participated in or led over 60 projects. In fact, in the last 5 years, he has participated mostly as PI in 14 projects, funded by different sources, including different national and international public institutions, and research agreements with both national and multinational companies. Over this time, it has built a long body of resources, protocols, and collaborations. The problems and science are always global from some point of view, and he has been collaborating with laboratories from the whole world, including ones from developing countries, such as in Latin America or Africa. Funds obtained from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, EU PRIMA program, and specific national programs to collaborate with underdeveloped countries are proof of such a vocation. His involvement in the crop protection field led him to become a member of 5 scientific societies, with the special relevance of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology (SIP), where he served as Secretary/Treasurer and later as President of the Bacteria Division.

Moreover, he is interested in the dissemination of the research and was co-organizer of the meetings of the SIP/IOBC societies and one from the Spanish Society of Applied Entomology, which took place in Valencia. He actively collaborates with bulletins of such societies, not only the international ones but also in the national ones, and provides some papers in regular journals of the agricultural sector. The implication with the international companies is evidenced by the contacts but, in addition, he has collaborations with national companies (AFRASA, S.A., PROBELTE, S.A.,…). The contracts were to develop new materials and technology, but in other cases to offer services not present in the market. Another aspect is the technician formation in different methodologies not only by hiring in funded projects but also with tutoring in the laboratory, students from regulated technical studies (Professional Formation), and taking part in specific formation actions.

He has been involved in different facets in the formation of young researchers as part of his activities as a university professor, with the remarkable tutoring of 3 or 4 research works per year as undergraduate and master's theses. In addition, he has participated in the evaluation commission of about 10 student research works per year from different levels: undergraduate, Master, Ph.D., but also to evaluate university professor positions. The experience allows some of them to pursue a career in science. The doctoral students tutored by him, including several foreign researchers, obtained a high score in their theses, and all of them have followed research careers in public and private companies or institutions.

He is a senior piece of the CBP group that has been built over decades and contributes to keeping and enlarging it. The research line of discovering new pesticide resources and the work on insect resistance has been nationally and internationally validated. In fact, he has reviewed projects from several autonomic, national, and international research agencies. It is remarkable that the collaboration with the DFG (Germany), ARIS (Slovenia), and DLR (Western Balkan) agencies. Moreover, he has been invited to serve as a reviewer of more than 25 journals and has become a member sequentially to the editorial board of 5 journals. Moreover, he has participated as an invited editor for Special Issues related to B. thuringiensis in different journals.