Lucio Conti (PI) is associate professor of genetics. He teaches Biotecnologie vegetali industriali, Genetica (Bachelor degrees) and Molecular Genetics (MSc degree). His research revolves around the mode of action of plant hormones ABA and GA in the control of the switch to flowering under varying environmental conditions.
Damiano Martignago (Tenure track researcher – RTDa) studies how ABA signals are decoded at the shoot apex. He is also using the natural genetic variation of Arabidopsis to expose new alleles that affect the drought escape process.
Sara Colanero (Postdoc) uses Arabidopsis and tomato to understand how hormones ABA and GA signalling and production interact in the context of vegetative growth and how this impacts yield traits, stress responses and adaptability.
Paolo Korwin Krukowski (Postdoc) uses molecular approaches to identify how signals derived from changes in photoperiod and ABA accumulation are integrated at the chromatin levels.
Beatrice Landoni (Postdoc) uses ecological and genomic approaches to understand why correlations exist between environmental and phenotypic variation by focusing on water availability and life-history traits such as flowering time.
Luca Rabagliati (PhD student)
Simone Sarto (MSc student in Bioinformatics for Computational Genomics) uses in silico approaches to study ABA-regulated bZIPs function at the shoot apex, along with Damiano and Beatrice.
Viktoriia Kyrychenko (Graduate student, HFSP ‘Science for Scientists’ fellow)
Fabio Palmigiani (MSc student in Plant Science) Works with Sara on a project aimed at examining how restoring ABA production in guard cells impacts plant growth and development-
Michela Martinelli (BSc student in Biotechnology)
Elisa Palumbo (BSc student in Biotechnology)
Previous Members:
Sara Castelletti , Beata Siemiatkowska (Post doc)
Alice Robustelli Test (PhD student)
Matteo Riboni and Giulia Castorina (PhD students and then Postdocs), co-supervised with Prof Chiara Tonelli
Eliana Mor, Giada Lavigna, Stefano Messina, Marco Furco, Jasmin Putri Nabila, Elia Mancini, Alessandra Lombardi, Silvia Longo, Joseph Kumar, Aldo Sutti, Petra Merzan, Ibrahim Loukili (MSc Students)
Christian Ferraro, Silvia Paganini, Andrea Motta, Giulia Pozzi, Erika Fascini, Fabio Boiocchi, Carlotta Ferrario, Aldo Sutti, Andrea Persello, Chiara Arcari, Carlotta Nardi, Sara Cioffi, Alessandra Bosc, Samuele Austoni, Petra Merzan, Mirko Efoglia, Gaia Pilerci, Camilla Iliceto, Federico Lozza, Rebecca Weinrich, Alessandro Masteghin (BSc students)
Marziye Rahimi (Visiting PhD student), Daniel Cayuelas Peral (Erasmus Trainee)