Cubillos Riffo Francisco Alberto

Email: 
francisco.cubillos.r@usach.cl
Teléfono: 
227 181 083

Abstract:

Dr. Francisco A Cubillos obtained his PhD in 2010 at the University of Nottingham, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Edward J Louis and Dr. Gianni Liti. The research carried out by Cubillos during his PhD studies were focused in understanding the genetic architecture of complex traits in a model organism, like yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). The major finding was that in most cases the genetic background interaction together with the environment specifically determined the variants underlying differences between individuals. Moreover, it was seen that genotypes differentially respond to growth conditions due to independent genomic regions responsible for the phenotypic differences. This study represents the first one in demonstrating the complex G x E interactions in yeast and is being highly cited nowadays. In paralalell, an active collaboration with Dr. Warringer from University of Gothenburg lead to a series of higly cited papers describing the phenotypic landscape in yeast, were Dr Cubillos had a crucial role in identifying the genes responsible for those phenotypic differences and its subsequent validation. Since then, Dr Cubillos has been involved in several research projects in yeast with collaborators around the world  aiming to decipher the genetics behind phenotypic variation

After completing his PhD, Dr Cubillos moved to the INRA-Versailles Research Centre in Paris, France to carry out his Post-Doctoral studies in the model organism Arabidosis Thaliana in the laboratory of Dr. Olivier Loudet. Was during this time, that Dr Cubillos began to work in natural variation in expression traits to understand the role of non-coding regions in plant adaptation to extreme environments, particularly, drought stress. In this context, several ‘Omics’ approeaches were used, like RNA-Seq, DNA-seq and the sequencing of epigenomes in order to dissect the molecular bases behind expression differences between natural accessions. During this time, Dr Cubillos obtained a returning grant awarded by CONICYT to return to Chile and establish his own research group.

The current research line lead by Dr. Cubillos is focused in natural genetic and phenotypic variation in S. eubayanus, one of the lager yeast parents. For this, Dr Cubillos has obtained several research and international collaboration grants. The current grants by Dr Cubillos aim to isolate and characterise strains at the molecular level for biotechnological applications.

Línea(s) de investigación: 
Genética Molecular
Jerarquía: 
Asistente
Grados académicos /educación: 
PhD en Genética, Universidad de Nottingham
Magister en Cs Biológicas c/m Microbiología, Universidad de Chile
Licenciado en Ingenería en Biotecnología Molecular, Universidad de Chile