Carmen Santos

I am biologist, I finished the bachelor degree in Cell Biology and Biotechnology in 2008 at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon. In 2010, I obtained the master degree in Cell Biology and Biotechnology at he same University, with the presentation of a thesis entitled "Isolation of Phytophthora cinnamomi resistance genes and defining a protocol of genetic transformation in Castanea sativa". My scientific activity was initiated in 2010 as a research fellow in the project PTDC/AGR-CFL/101707/2008- "Understanding resistance to pathogenic fungi in Castanea sp.," participating in all project tasks. Since 2013, I am developing my PhD project entitled "Genomic approaches to understand the genetic response to Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands in Castanea sp.” at the National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research (INIAV) and New University of Lisbon (ITQB-UNL).

Understanding how different Castanea species or genotypes could resist to P. cinnamomi infection has been a great challenge. I believe that the answer to the complexity of resistance to P. cinnamomi is only possible integrating different approaches. Therefore, based on a hybrid population of susceptibe European chestnut x Japanese chestnut (resistant species), several studies have been performed in phenomics, transcriptomics and genomics. My academic career has taken advantage from those different scientific areas.

In the context of my PhD project, I was three months in the United States in different scientific institutions: University of Kentucky, Clemson University, Southern Institute of Forest Genetics, Southern Research Station, USDA Forest and The American Chestnut Foundation.

I am author of more than 20 publications in scientific meetings, 1 scientific article in a national journal peer-reviewed and 4 articles in international journals peer-reviewed.

October 2016