Recogniziang Plant Physiology first authors: Alessandro Occhialini

Alessandro Occhialini, first author of MoChlo: A versatile modular cloning toolbox for chloroplast

Current position: Postdoctoral research scientist at the department of Food Science, University of Tennessee UTK (Knoxville, USA)

Education: PhD degree in plant cellular biology, at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland)

Non-scientific interests: Fishing, hiking, mushroom hunting, fitness, running, football

Brief bio: My scientific career started in Italy at the University of Urbino where I have obtained two bachelors and a master degree in biology and biotechnology. After that, I moved to Switzerland where I got a PhD degree in plant cellular biology at the University of Neuchâtel in Jean-Marc Neuhaus’s lab. During my PhD thesis, I have studied the localization and the mechanisms of protein-protein interaction of RMRs (Receptor Membrane RING-H2) in the plant endomembrane system. A few years later, I had the opportunity to work as a Post-Doc in Martin Parry’s laboratory at Rothamsted Research (United Kingdom), one of the oldest agricultural research institute in the world. At Rothamsted Research, I have been involved in a collaborative project with Maureen Hanson’s group at Cornell University (USA), focusing on the exploitation of components of the cyanobacterial carbon-concentrating mechanism to improve plant photosynthetic efficiency. At present I am working in the USA at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in the laboratories of Scott Lenaghan and Neal Stewart, where I am involved in several projects related to synthetic biology and metabolic engineering of chloroplasts.