Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Carlos J. S. Moreira

Carlos J. S. Moreira, co-first author of An ionic liquid extraction that preserves the molecular structure of cutin shown by nuclear magnetic resonance

Current Position: PhD Candidate of the Plants for Life International PhD Program of Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica – NOVA University of Lisbon (ITQB NOVA), Oeiras, Portugal

Education: MSc in Applied Microbiology from the Faculty of Sciences – University of Lisbon (FCUL), Lisbon, Portugal. BSc in Education in Life Sciences and Mathematics from Escola Superior de Educação – Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (ESE IPB), Bragança, Portugal

Non-scientific interest: books, music, movies and sports

Brief bio: After obtaining my bachelor degree in 2003 I was a teacher of Life Sciences and Mathematics for 10 years. In 2013, I started my Master degree in Applied Microbiology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. One year later I joined Silva Pereira’s Lab at ITQB NOVA to develop my thesis on the potential of ionic liquids as tools to elucidate cell wall integrity in filamentous fungi. In 2016, I was awarded a one-year research fellowship from an ERC project at Silva Pereira’s Lab to develop a library of fungal mutants hampered in key genes involved in the degradation of plant polyesters. In 2017, I was awarded a four-years PhD contract sponsored by ARALAB – Portugal, to develop my PhD within the scope of the International PhD program Plants for Life of ITQB NOVA. My project focus on the role played by polyester barriers during plant-pathogen interaction and is developed as part of a collaboration between Silva Pereira´s Lab at ITQB NOVA and the Zipfel’s Lab at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology – University of Zurich (IPMB UZH).