Lorenzo Christian

PSB - Systems biology of Yield

I am a senior Argentinian postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Profs. Dirk Inzé and Hilde Nelissen at the VIB Ugent Center for Plant Systems Biology (PSB) in Belgium. My primary research interest lies in the study of how gene networks shape plant physiological responses and how this information can be translated into trait improvements in maize. I earned a PhD in biological sciences from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and did my thesis under the supervision of Prof. Pablo Cerdán in Fundación Instituto Leloir (Buenos Aires). During my PhD i studied the conservation of flowering mechanisms between Arabidopsis thaliana and the forage crop Medicago sativa (alfalfa) in order to improve its biomass quality. I later did a first postdoc in Prof. Marcelo Yanovsky’s lab where i studied the shade avoidance responses of soybean and alfalfa, aiming to create improved yielding varieties suited for high-density cultivation. Presently i work in BREEDIT, a multidisciplinary ERC funded project combining both gene editing and classical breeding aspects in maize with the objective of improving yield and drought resistance in this crop.