Fitxa persona

I am Assistant Professor at University of Valencia since January 2025 and PI of the PlantRepro lab, where my research combines my PhD background in plant development with 9 years of postdoc abroad in the field of plant reproduction and omic approaches.

After defending my PhD (2016) at University of Valencia with “Outstanding Cum Laude and International Mention” qualification, I got a postdoc position in the lab of Stefanie Sprunck and Thomas Dresselhaus at the University of Regensburg (2016-2020). There I studied the evolution of sexual plant reproduction as a part of the international consortium EVOREPRO. I developed expertise on plant gamete isolation techniques, transcriptomic profiling of female gametes (Flores-Tornero et al., 2019), contributed to elucidate the role of a protein in the acquisition of sperm fusion competence (Wang et al., 2022), and to demonstrate the conservation of transcriptional programmes underlying sexual reproduction in land plants (Julca et al., 2021).

During my second postdoc (2021-2024), I worked in Jörg Becker’s lab at ITQB NOVA (Portugal), expanding my knowledge about sperm cell isolation by FACS and the impact of heat stress in Arabidopsis and tomato male gametophytes at omic level. Among the main contributions, I led the creation of the first fluorescent male gamete marker line in tomato to enable high throughput isolation by FACS (Flores-Tornero et al., 2025), as well as a detailed Open Access review (Flores-Tornero and Becker, 2023), highlighting the current omic knowledge about sperm cells. 

My dedication to scientific excellence is reflected in a h-factor of 13, with 590 citations (Web of Science, 2025) and I have one 6-year-researching period recognised by ANECA. So far, I have co-authored 3 book chapters and 25 papers (13 as first author and 6 as corresponding) in high impact journals (e.g. Nature Plants, Molecular Plant, The Plant Cell, or Plant Physiology), and half of them without my PhD supervisor, clearly showing a strong commitment to develop my own scientific path. I also participated in 8 national and 16 international congresses, where I obtained awards for “Best oral” (Madrid, 2013) and “Best poster” (Toledo, 2015; Braga, 2023) communications.

I have participated in 11 projects, funded at regional (2), national (7), and European (2) level, and secured 4 highly competitive grants: a European Marie Curie Postdoc Fellowship (MSCA 2022) to start my own research on single-cell omics analysis of plant gametes; a CEEC Junior 2021 by the Portuguese FCT to perform integrative omics analysis of plant gametes; a Exploratory Project (PEX 2023, Portuguese FCT) to explore the putative role of embryo sac cells in triggering gamete fusion inside the ovule, and recently a 3 years national grant (PID2025, Spanish State Research Agency) to explore a putative fusion preference of arabidopsis sperm cells linked to significant differences at omic level. Due to the mobility and collaborations, I had the possibility to create my own multidisciplinary network with leading scientist like Prof. Thomas Dresselhaus (Germany), Prof. Marek Mutwil (Singapore), Antonio Granell (Spain) or Prof. Zbynek Zdráhal (Czech Republic), among others.

Additionally, I serve as Assistant Features Editor in Plant Physiology and have done peer-reviewing for Molecular Plant, The Plant Cell, Plant Reproduction or Journal of Experimental Botany, among others. I have been “Visitor Scientist” in Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC, now GIMM)(Oeiras, Portugal) and invited to deliver seminars in foreign institutions, like Beijing University (China), CIB (Madrid), Universidade Porto (Portugal) or IBMCP (Valencia). I was member of the Scientific Committee of ITQB NOVA, as well as member of scientific societies like the American Society of Plant Biologist (ASPB), the Spanish Society of Plant Biology (SEBP), Board member of the International Association of Sexual Plant Reproduction Research (IASPRR) since september 2026, and member of the European COST action CA22157 (RECROP) involved in the enhancement of crop resilience to extreme climates from the plant reproductive perspective.

Besides my research tasks, I have been always involved in teaching and supervising duties of my host institutions and I have one 5-year-teaching period recognised by the UV. I taught theory and practical sessions in different Degrees at the University of Regensburg and University of Valencia, as well as in Master programs at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) de Lisboa, and in international PhD programs like “Plants for Life” at ITQB NOVA or “Integrative Biology and Biomedicine” at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Oeiras). I have supervised 1 Master thesis, and took part in 2 PhD Defence Committees as well as 14 Final Degree Thesis.

Finally, I have attended 25 courses related to innovative teaching methods and scientific skills, and contributed in several international outreach activities like “European Researchers Nights” or “Fascination of Plants Day” by making educative experiments or leading the organization of the info-stand to raise awareness in general audiences about the importance of working with plants for a sustainable future of our society.