Juan Ignacio Vilchez

Over the last few years, I have developed my career in the field of beneficial plant-microorganism interactions. In this sense, I have been able to approach the area from many points, making very relevant contributions in each of them. Thus, within a leading research group at the University of Granada (Spain), we defined the first index to catalogue microorganisms with biotechnological interest based on their degree of environmental and human biosafety. Our publication in Frontiers in Microbiology (Q1), was pioneer in the field, providing insights on the regulation of production and use of biofertilizers. Also, within the same group, and using a multi-omics approach, I could define previously undescribed strategies of plant protection from drought through a beneficial microorganism, yielding 3 publications in Frontiers of Microbiology (Q1). In these publications we had the collaboration of groups in Ireland and Germany (IT Carlow and Universität Bielefeld).

During the last years, working in the group of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria at the Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology (China), I have been able to go further and define the first direct relationship between epigenetically regulated environmental stress, changes in composition of root exudates and selective attraction of a beneficial bacterial strain, published in Nature Plants (Q1). To do this, we followed a very novel approach in the field, using mutants in genes that regulate the methylation status. With this same technique, we could also define changes in natural microbiomes linked to multiple epigenetic regulators (Microbiome, Q1). In this same group and in the context of beneficial interactions, I have collaborated in trials involving the effects of volatile organic components (EMBO Journal, Q1), phenols in the rhizosphere and epigenetically regulated late defensive patterns (currently in a second round of review in Nature Plants). The experience in this group allowed me to generate a multilevel and interdisciplinary vision of this field of study. In these years, we have also defined the genomes of 7 strains with biotechnological interest and in beneficial interactions with plants. Based on these strains, we could promote 6 international patents (2 of them are pending final validation).

Along my research experience, I have been able to present my work at international conferences in Italy, Ireland, China and Uzbekistan. In both Spain and China, I have taught in undergraduate and doctoral courses, and also supervised undergraduate, Master and Doctoral students.

Since January 2021, I have obtained a position as Auxiliary Researcher through GREEN-IT research unit, to establish my own group (iPlantMicro) at the António Xavier Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB NOVA) where I already started teaching master and doctoral students regarding the progress in microbiome biotechnology for plant improvement. In the coming years, I aim to consolidate a stable group of top-level researchers capable of facing the greatest challenges in microbiome bioengineering, beneficial interactions and technology transference. I also want to contribute for their development as scientists, aware of their responsibilities towards the planet and the society, caring for the environmental sustainability and a healthy economy.