PlantStressLab - Post-Docs and Lab Technicians
Francesco Gresta
Francesco has a background in plant biotechnology, physiology of mineral nutrition and fertilisation in tomato. He applies physiological and molecular techniques to understand how tomato plants regulate nutrient uptake and how they react to nutrient deficiency, with particular focus on hormone balance.
Giulia Russo
My research focuses on investigating the role of selected phytohormones in combined stress resilience in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). In particular I study the influence of strigolactones and abscisic acid on the modulation of plant response to water and nutrient deficiency by applying physiological and molecular approaches.
Chiara Agliassa
My post-doc project is focused on understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms involved in the recovery from drought stress. I mainly study the role of xylem parenchyma cells in modulating this process in woody plants, using Populus spp. as a model.
Daniela Minerdi
As lab technician, I am mainly interested the interactions taking place in the rhizosphere between bacteria, plants and fungi using an inter-disciplinary approach that involves molecular biology, plant pathology, molecular phylogeny, proteomics and biochemistry tools. In particular, the molecular dialogue that exists between bacteria and fungi and bacteria and plants via infochemicals like microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs).
Silvia Cavalletto
Lab technician. Her main subjects of expertise are agrometeorology and micrometeorology, plant physiology and climate change. She is interested on whole plant water relations and abiotic plant stress biology.