Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Federico López Hernández

Federico López Hernández, first author of Calcium binding by arabinogalactan polysaccharides is important for normal plant development

Current Position: Research Scientist at Tropic Biosciences

Education: B.Sc. in Biotechnology Engineering from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Monterrey, Mexico; MPhil and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK

 Non-scientific Interests: inline skating, cycling, coffee roasting, camping and spending time at the allotment caring for plants

Brief bio: Federico accidentally discovered his passion for plants during a course on hydroponics and plant tissue culture. He holds a B.Sc. in Biotechnology Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Monterrey, Mexico). Towards the end of this undergraduate degree, he worked with Dr. Guy Cardineau in the development of plant-made vaccines. He followed his passion for plants as a Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Research Intern at the Osaka Prefectural University, Japan. There, he explored aspects of sorghum tissue culture under the supervision of Dr. Toshinobu Morikawa.

In 2011, during a Plant Cell Wall Biology meeting, he was fortunate to meet Professor Paul Dupree and his laboratory. Eager to find out about the biological role of arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) in plant development, Federico completed a MPhil and a PhD in plant cell wall biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.

After completing his PhD, he worked as a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry studying protein aggregation in human stem cells.

He is now Research Scientist at Tropic Biosciences, a plant biotechnology company based in Norwich, UK.