Fitxa persona

I initiated my research activity with a FPI pre-doctoral grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (1994-1997) to carry out the PhD Thesis entitled “Mode of action of Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal proteins in the forests pests Thaumetopoea pityocampa and Lymantria monacha” supervised by Dr. M. Dolores Real at the University of Valencia  During this period, I performed a three-month research stay at the biotechnological company Plant Genetic Sytems (Ghent, Belgium) in 1993, and a two-month research stay at the Entomology Department of the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (München, Germany) in 1995. I started my post-doctoral research (1998-2001) in the research group of Dr. Andrés Moya and Dr. Amparo Latorre on the area of insect endosymbionts genome sequencing at the Astrobiology Center (INTA, Madrid) and Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (University of Valencia), followed by a post-doctoral research stay (2002-2004) at Dr. Alejandra Bravo’s laboratory (Biotechnology Institute, UNAM, Mexico), focused on the molecular mechanisms of membrane insertion of B. thuringiensis toxins. In 2004, I rejoined Dr. M. Dolores Real’s group at the Genetics Department of the University of Valencia with a “Ramón y Cajal” research contract (2004-2009) to study Cry3Aa toxin mode of action in coleopteran pests. Since 2009, I am associate professor of Genetics at the University of Valencia and I have expanded my research in the area of plant protection to include the study and characterization of the underlying molecular mechanisms of plant defense against biotic and abiotic stress as well as exploiting natural resources (natural priming compounds, insect microbial communities, peptides of plant or insect origin) to improve plant performance. After a two-month research stay that I performed at Dr. Hoskins’ laboratory (Pathology Dept., Dalhousie University, Canada) in 2015, our group started a new line of research on the use of peptides derived from insects as antimicrobial agents and in cancer, and I am co-inventor of the patent entitled “Peptide and pharmaceutical compositions of same for use as antimicrobial and in cancer treatment” (ES201731455, PCT/ES2018/070824). I am full professor of Genetics since 2025.

As a researcher I have participated in 16 research projects, being PI and co-PI of 6 of them, and I have 5 “sexenios” (six year-research periods) recognized. Throughout my scientific career I have participated in several international projects supported by funding organizations for research and innovation networks such as COST and CYTED and I have also carried out research in collaboration with companies such as with Ionera Technologies GmbH, Freiburg, Germany. From 2020 to 2024, our research group participated in the European project “SYSTEMIC: An integrated approach to the challenge of sustainable food systems: adaptive and mitigatory strategies to address climate change and malnutrition”, within the ERA-HDHL Knowledge Hub on Food and Nutrition Security in which I was co-leader of WP 2 Task 1 “Crop production optimization, biodiversity, and plant breeding”.

I have co-directed 3 PhD theses (Camila Ochoa, 2011; Estefanía Contreras, 2013; Aida Robles Fort, 2023), two of which were granted with the Extraordinary Doctorate Award, as well as 8 Master theses. I have also served as reviewer of several scientific journals (Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, etc.).