Leandro Pereira-Dias

Biography

Molecular biologist in plant breeding (PhD, 2019) at COMAV – Universitat Politècnica de València, fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English, has developed activities in interdisciplinary teams dedicated to the breeding of climate-smart, nutritionally rich, pest-resistant Solanaceae crops. Has collaborated as core team member in competitive, international projects such as BRESOV, G2P-SOL, TRADITOM, funded by the Horizon2020 programme, and SOLNUE and PIMCERA, funded by AEI. Has experience collaborating with companies, regional entities, and farmers' associations to design and develop added-value varieties, increasing profitability and market competitiveness.

Currently holding a prestigious Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Fellowship on the application of microbe-derived peptides against phytopathogens undermining tomato cultivation, as a green alternative to conventional agrochemicals, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities and the NextGenerationEU programme. A recent fellowship at iB2Lab-FCUP involved him in the prospection of green-based solutions to mitigate the impacts of ESCA-like disease on kiwifruit and climate change on grapevine in the projects KiwiBol (FCUP team Task Leader) and VineProtect (FCUP team Molecular Tasks Leader), through the inoculation with microbial peptides, biological control agents and plant growth promoters, funded by FCT and PRIMA, respectively. Coretasks included culturomics, antibiograms, antagonism assays, and amplicon sequencing metagenomics of trunk and soil microbiome to unveil the pathosystem’s dynamics.

Has experience in designing and executing high-throughput plant stress and infection assays to evaluate fitness, resilience, and the genetics of traits. Proficient in several methodologies related to plant breeding, such as phenomics, metabolomics, marker-assisted selection, gene expression, and GWAS. Now he is expanding his expertise to include CRISPR-Cas editing in tomato, broadening his molecular toolkit. Proficient in statistical and bioinformatics analysis, acquired through self-study, collaborations with experts, and specialized training.

He has authored several high-impact scientific papers. His contributions also include 3 book chapters, 3 magazine articles, and 28 conference presentations. Over the years, he has served as a regular reviewer and guest editor for prestigious scientific journals. Possesses practical teaching experience through the design and instruction of a course on the manipulation of laboratory equipment for RNA extraction and RT-PCR. Demonstrated strong teaching abilities and in-depth expertise in guiding students through hands-on techniques and complex concepts. His academic mentorship includes supervising several BSc and MSc theses, as well as serving on MSc and PhD thesis defense committees, reflecting his commitment to advancing the field. In 2023, he was awarded competitive funding for his first project as Principal Investigator (PI), focusing on the genetics of polyphenol biosynthesis in tomato plants, underscoring his ability to lead research initiatives and marking a significant milestone in his research trajectory.