Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Elia Lacchini
Elia Lacchini, co-first author of A Seed-Specific Regulator of Triterpene Saponin Biosynthesis in Medicago truncatula
Current Position: Postdoctoral scientist, VIB-UGENT Center for Plant System Biology, Ghent Belgium
Education: B.Sc. Crops and Plant Sciences, University of Milan, Italy; M.Sc. Plant, Food and Environmental Biotechnology, University of Milan, Italy; Ph.D. Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Milan, Italy
Non-scientific interests: aquascaping, capoeira, reading, brewing, videogaming
Brief Bio: I did my bachelor in Crops science willing to understand the scientific basis of agricultural production and the relation between humans, plants and the environment. Later, intrigued by plant biology I focused on plant breeding and genetics thus embracing molecular biology as the main area of interest. During my master thesis and Ph.D., I worked on African and Asian rice varieties using plant transformation and gene editing tools to improve inflorescence architecture and seed yield. Finally, I started my post-doc in Prof. Alain Goossens lab at VIB in Gent, working on medicinal plants to characterize novel biosynthetic pathways controlling the production of valuable specialized metabolites with important applications in modern therapeutics.
