Advisory Board and Editors Biotechnology
Damien P. Debecker
Damien P. Debecker is Associate Professor at the UCLouvain (Belgium), teaching physical chemistry, process engineering, principles of biorefining, and industrial waste treatment. His research group aims at developing new heterogeneous catalysts and biocatalysts, paving the way to the design of more sustainable chemical processes. At the interface between green chemistry, materials chemistry, biochemistry and chemical engineering, his expertise lies in the preparation of innovative solid (bio)catalysts and in their evaluation in relevant reaction conditions. Catalyst preparation methods include the aerosol-assisted sol-gel, emulsion-templating, non-hydrolytic sol-gel, colloidal methods, enzyme immobilization. Targeted applications cover biomass upgrading, volatile organic compounds total oxidation, biocatalyzed organic synthesis, CO2 methanation, olefin metathesis, etc.
Carminia Maria Della Corte
-09/01/2018-current: Postdoc researcher at MDACC, Houston, Thoracic Head and Neck department, PI: Lauren Byers
-05/07/2012 – 04/07/2017: Residency in Medical Oncology (50/50 cum laude) at Second University of Naples, research thesis in:“Role of Hedgehog pathway in the acquisition of resistance to EGFR inhibitors in EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer models”
- 10/10/2011: Degree in Medicine (110/110 cum laude), at Second University of Naples, research thesis in “Antitumor activity of sorafenib in human cancer cell lines with acquired resistance to EGFR and VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors”
-Multiple first-name and co-authored publications in Transnational research in Oncology field.
Nathalie Diagne
Dr. Nathalie Diagne is a Researcher at the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research in Senegal.
Her primary expertise includes, Plant Biotechnology, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Agriculture, and Plant Biology.
Rumiana Dimova
Group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces since 2005
PhD in Biophysics from Bordeaux University
Awarded the Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics in 2014
Research interests: mechanical, rheological and electrical properties of membranes, colloidal interactions, molecular crowding
Jan Dolfing
PhD in Environmental Microbiology from Wageningen University in The Netherlands. Post-doctoral experience at Michigan State University (with Jim Tiedje) and EAWAG/ETH in Switzerland (With Rene Schwarzenbach and Joseph Zeyer).
My main interest is in the applicability and application of thermodynamic logic to microbial processes and interactions in methanogenic ecosystems. Ongoing projects include: Reductive dechlorination of chlordecone, a legacy compound used for pest control in the French West Indies.
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.
Anja Ehrhardt
Anja Ehrhardt studied biology at the Universities Göttingen and Hamburg in Germany and performed her PhD thesis at the Fraunhofer Insitute of Toxicology and Aerosol Research in Germany. From 1999-2005 she was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University focusing on adenovirus and gene therapy. In 2005 she bacame a group leader at the LMU Munich, Germany, and since 2011 she is a full professor and chair of Medical Microbiology at the Private University Witten/Herdecke in Germany.
Drew Endy
Faculty of Bioengineering, Stanford University. Helped start BioBricks (biobricks.org) and iGEM (igem.org), and is a member of the US National Advisory Board for Biosecurity (biosecurityboard.gov).
A. Murat Eren
I am a computer scientist and a microbial ecologist. I develop algorithms and software platforms to make sense of the ecology of microbes through marker genes, metagenomes, and metatranscriptomes.
Cristina Fillat
Since 2011 she leads a research group in Gene Therapy and Cancer at IDIBAPS, Barcelona. Over the years she has contributed to the gene therapy field with more than 80 publications. She was among the team members that promote the constitution of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and served as Scientific Secretary from 2005 to 2011. She is editorial board member of several journals and Associate Editor of the Current Gene Therapy.
Mario Alberto Flores-Valdez
Dr. Mario Alberto Flores-Valdez is a Professor in the Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Unit, CIATEJ, A.C., Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico (2007-present). He is a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI), and a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He was a Stanford University Medical Center postdoctoral fellow (2004-2007), where he received a Dean's Fellowship Award (2006) to conduct research on Tuberculosis. He worked in UNAM as Research Assistant for Prof. Jaime Mora (2004) and Prof. Emundo Calva (2003). He has received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UNAM (1999-2003), a M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering from UANL (1996-1999) and a B.Sc. from Universidad de Sonora (1991-1996) in Chemistry and Biology. He received fellowships from CONACYT for M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies and in M.Sc. and B.Sc. has received Diplomas as Best Student. He has expertise in Tuberculosis, particularly in developing recombinant BCG strains. He has been PI for 7 grants from 2008 to date, focused in studies about tuberculosis vaccine development and basic aspects of mycobacterial physiology.