Pedro Humberto Castro

Pedro Humberto Castro is a Plant Molecular Biologist. After finishing his BSc degree in Applied Biology and specializing in Plant Molecular Physiology, PHC started his PhD studies (University of Minho, Portugal; University of Malaga, Spain) to understand molecular mechanisms in regulating plant development, nutrient homeostasis, and tolerance to environmental stress conditions. Specifically, PHC focused on understanding the effect and biological function of the peptide SUMO and its enzymatic components, highlighting SUMO as a powerful molecular system to enhance crops' resilience to climate change. After finishing his PhD (2013), PHC was an invited assistant professor at the University of Minho. In 2015, PHC moved to the Section for Plant and Soil Sciences of the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), where he was involved in ground-breaking discoveries that unraveled how plants perceive and regulate the micronutrient zinc in plants. Presently, PHC is a researcher at BIOPOLIS-CIBIO, where he studies plant biofortification mechanisms for micronutrients and beneficial elements (i.e., iodine) and genetic strategies to counteract environmental stress conditions. PHC has applied cutting-edge techniques and technologies such as transcriptomic methodologies, proteomics, comparative genomics, genome editing, and other molecular biology tools. Functional genomics approaches, with a strong focus on Arabidopsis as a model, allowed PHC and his team to study the impact and function of each gene in specific biological contexts. Using genetic conservation, genetic enrichment, and phylogenetic methods, PHC was able to map the genes in plant species of economic interest. For its relevance, tomato and its national collection (in collaboration with Portuguese Plant Germplasm Bank, INIAV-Braga) have been used to solve modern problems associated with food security and nutrient quality. The research has successfully secured diverse funding sources, obtained patents, and published various articles in reputable scientific journals.