Fitxa persona

My research career began during the last year of my Bsc in Biology at the University of Alicante (UA). I conducted an experimental End-of-Degree Project studying the interactions between viruses and hosts in hypersaline environments under the supervision of Prof. Josefa Antón. Subsequently, after completing various postgraduate courses mainly in Microbiology and Biochemistry, I pursued two official Master degrees in Secondary Teaching, and Research in Molecular, Cellular, and Genetic Biology at the UA and the Universitat de València (UV), respectively. In 2015, I joined the Biotechnological Pest Control (CBP) group at the University Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (UV), where I was responsible for conducting research in collaboration with AFRASA (a national chemical industry company) to develop a new bioinsecticide against different lepidopteran pests based on native strains of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Following that, I was awarded an FPU grant (Formación Profesorado Universitario), during which I developed my PhD thesis under the supervision of Juan Ferré and Patricia Hernández Martínez, identifying the biochemical basis of resistance to Cry1 and Vip3 proteins produced by Bt, and exploring the interaction of these proteins with their receptors in the midgut of several insect pests. During the PhD, I conducted a research stay at the United States Department of Agriculture, the Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) in the U.S., where I had the opportunity to learn how to apply genome editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 to lepidopteran pests. Moreover, throughout my PhD I have built several collaborations with other entomology researchers from international research institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), the University of Tennessee or the Imperial College London. These collaborations allowed me to finish my PhD thesis with 6 publications as first author in Q1 journals related with Agricultural Biotechnology, as well as many presentations, both oral and poster, at national and international conferences (with 2 awards for “Best Oral Presentation”), achieving a final qualification of "Cum Laude" and "International Mention" in my PhD. Also, I have been involved in dissemination activities such as writing a book chapter for the Spanish Society of Applied Entomology (SEEA) or by opening and maintaining social networks at the CBP group. Additionally, during this period, I have actively participated in teaching at the Department of Genetics, where I have taught more than 250 hours of mainly experimental sessions on different subjects, such as Genetics, Molecular Genetics, Molecular Methods in Biology or Criminal Analysis Techniques, corresponding to the Biotechnology, Biology and Criminology Degrees. I have always cared about the quality of my teaching, reason why I have enrolled several presential courses to improve them, such as “Educational innovation through scientific evidence”, “Gamification Techniques” or “Use of AI in higher education”, as well as webinars to gain other soft skills such as “Creative thinking”, “Emotional intelligence and leadership”, among others.

After my PhD, I worked in different University-Industry agreements related with the agricultural sector, such as between UV and BASF (the world's leading chemical company) to experimental projects, and later as researcher in joint project between UV and Bayer-CropScience, within the CBP group. Currently, I am working on a project funded by the prestigious Human Frontier Science Program Organization, under the supervision of Cristina Crava, and in collaboration with researchers from Perú, UK and Spain. During this last stage, I have also supervised students that conduct different tasks in our lab. Furthermore, I conducted a research stay funded by a José Castillejo grant (Ministry of Universities) in the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK) to unveil how baculoviruses infect the brain and nervous system of Spodoptera exigua, a worldwide present insect pest. Throughout my scientific career I have gained extensive knowledge and expertise of insect pests, mainly focused on the relationship between lepidopterans and other external effectors as B. thuringiensis, toxins produced by it or baculoviruses, both biological control agents.