Isolation and characterization of genes controlling floral and fruit development in legumes and tomato. Development of biotecnological tools to improve crop production and quality.

Molecular disection of the life cycle of plant viruses and viroids with special emphasis to the intracellular and vascular movement and to the host responses.

The Evolutionary and Systems Virology Group investigates fundamental genetic, ecological and epidemiological mechanisms driving the emergence and evolution of viruses. Our approach to viral evolution is three-fold: (1) development of mathematical and simulation models describing virus population dynamics, (2) experimental evolution of viral populations and characterization of the molecular basis of adaptation to new host species, and (3) molecular epidemiology and phylogeography of plant viruses.

Plants host a large variety of infectious agents that frequently cause enormous damage in crops and natural ecosystems. The first goal of our research group is to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie the interaction between plants and some of these pathogens, such as viruses and viroids. From this knowledge we expect to develop new biotechnological strategies for crop protection and innovation. We believe that we can take advantage of the remarkable properties of plant viruses and viroids by converting them into useful biotechnological devices.

Dr. JAVIER DE LAS RIVAS (MSc, PhD, Investigador Científico CSIC, PI at the IMBCC). His group works on 2 main research areas: (i) Development and application of BIOINFORMATICS and COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY methods for "omics" data analysis, focusing on the integration of genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data. All in the field of FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS for: gene expression profiling (pcRNAs and ncRNAs), identification of gene signatures and causal/driver genes, with special interest on "cancer studies" over human samples derived from clinical cohorts.

Along the years our group has aim to understand the processes of signal transduction that let to changes in cell structure and function in physiology and diseases. We focus our attention on the signaling pathways regulated by G proteins and GPCRs. A novel localization of G proteins at the mitochondria and other endomembranes where they regulate morphology and physiology of these organelles has been recently demonstrated by our group. Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that produce most of the energy of the cell.

The connections in our brain are continually changing. As we interact with our environment and each other, the connections between our neurons are remodeled so we can preserve these interactions such as learning and memory. At the molecular level, the brain performs this remodeling in part by expressing proteins in a local way at the connections between neurons (known as synapses). The process of synaptic remodeling is known as synaptic plasticity.