Maria Lucrecia Alvarez, Ph.D., works on the development of transgenic plants intended for therapeutical or industrial applications. She obtained a Master in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina (2000). Her Ph.D. thesis dissertation was on “Improvement of Nutritional and Bread-Making Quality of Wheat by Genetic Engineering”. She received part of her Ph.D. training at the Institute of Arable Crops Research (IACR), Long Ashton Research Station, Bristol University, Bristol (England, 1996), supported by British Council and Fundación Antorchas (Argentina). In 2000, Dr. Alvarez studied the particular rheological properties of the dough made with flours from the transgenic wheat that she obtained, during her visit as a Research Scholar to the Department of Genetics and Plant Improvement, Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain).
In 2002, Dr. Alvarez joined Dr. Walmsley’s research team at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona (USA) as a Visiting Research Scholar, partially supported by a fellowship from Fundación Antorchas (Argentina). In 2003, Dr Alvarez was contracted by Arizona State University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and joined Dr. Guy Cardineau’s laboratory. She is currently working in the development of an oral plant-made vaccine in tomato targeted against pneumonic and bubonic plague (Alvarez et. al. 2006, Vaccine 24: 2477- 2490). Other current areas of interest include a project on “Reversion of Gene Silencing” as a strategy to recover the expression of transgenic proteins in plants that are transformed with many copies of a transgene but have lost expression, presumably due to RNA silencing. As a part of a collaborative project with the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), Dr. Alvarez and Dr. Cardineau are developing transgenic alfalfa expressing hG-CSF (Human Granulocyte Colony Stimulator Factor) that would be used as a treatment in patients with leukemia and anemia as well as to counteract some of the negative side effects of the chemotherapy for cancer.
In 2002, Dr. Alvarez joined Dr. Walmsley’s research team at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona (USA) as a Visiting Research Scholar, partially supported by a fellowship from Fundación Antorchas (Argentina). In 2003, Dr Alvarez was contracted by Arizona State University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and joined Dr. Guy Cardineau’s laboratory. She is currently working in the development of an oral plant-made vaccine in tomato targeted against pneumonic and bubonic plague (Alvarez et. al. 2006, Vaccine 24: 2477- 2490). Other current areas of interest include a project on “Reversion of Gene Silencing” as a strategy to recover the expression of transgenic proteins in plants that are transformed with many copies of a transgene but have lost expression, presumably due to RNA silencing. As a part of a collaborative project with the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), Dr. Alvarez and Dr. Cardineau are developing transgenic alfalfa expressing hG-CSF (Human Granulocyte Colony Stimulator Factor) that would be used as a treatment in patients with leukemia and anemia as well as to counteract some of the negative side effects of the chemotherapy for cancer.
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