Eugenio Alcalde

Summary

I am currently working at Royal Holloway, University of London, as a Postdoctoral researcher in a European funded project focusing on the exploitation of the yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous as a sustainable platform for the production of high-value carotenoids. This project is an academic and industrial partnership of five European countries, which combines Genetics and Molecular Biology with Analytical Techniques to develop new strains. The project has been an excellent opportunity to collaborate with the industry to achieve a common goal, developing myself as an effective communicator and critical thinker.

During my Master and PhD, I worked on the identification and characterization of the apocarotenoids involved in the sexual interaction in mucorales fungi Phycomyces Blakesleeanus, Blakeslea trispora and Mucor circinelloides and their implication in the regulation of the biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids. The PhD project was in collaboration with an Organic Chemistry laboratory and I acquired the capacity to interact effectively in a multidisciplinary atmosphere.

After my PhD, I continued my academic work as a postdoctoral researcher studying the molecular basis of the carotenoids regulation of Phycomyces in different mutant strains and the effects across the metabolism. I had the opportunity to learn how to work on the analysis of big data sets. I have teamed up with researchers with different expertise across Europe and USA and I have mentored undergraduate, Master and PhD students. This has helped me greatly to improve my organizational, leadership, motivational and decision-making skills.

I consider myself a Science passionate person, always willing to incorporate new abilities to improve my research. I believe that having a good sense of humour and, effective and positive communication skills, and being able to create a motivational atmosphere is essential to establish the best team possible.

Positions

Education

Skills

Molecular Biology: DNA/RNA analysis and manipulation (e.g. DNA/RNA isolation, PCR, sequencing, synthesis of cDNA and qPCR analysis); molecular cloning (Classical digestion and ligation, and Gibson and MoClo/Golden Gate Systems); CRISPR-Cas9 DNA editing; genome mapping (markers by PCR-RFLPs); diverse yeast and fungal genetic techniques (e. g. mating, complementation, segregation).

Biochemistry: Recombinant expression and purification of proteins; PAGE gel electrophoresis; Fractionation of subcellular component in a density gradient; bioconversion assays with natural and synthetic compounds.

Metabolomics: Purification, identification and quantification of natural chemical compounds by TLC, HPLC and UPLC (PDA), LC-MS/MS and GC-MS. Statistical data analysis of big data sets.

Mutagenesis: Chemical mutagenesis in filamentous fungi and yeasts (N-methyl-N-Nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine and Ethyl methanesulfonate).

Informatics: Vector NTI, Serial cloner, Benchling, Empower (Waters), Data Analysis 4.1 (Bruker), ChemStation (Agilent), AMDIS, MetaboAnalyst, Simca-P, ChemDraw, Bioinformatics tools (Blast, multiple alignments, phylogeny, tree viewers, Biopython…), programming (HTML, CSS, Python).

Professional interests

Synthetic Biology, Metabolomics, Microbiology, Bioinformatics, Biological Chemistry.

Fellowships

Awards

Languages

Spanish and English

CV

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