Rate My Professor Cristina Barrero Sicilia

Dr Cristina Barrero Sicilia is a Lecturer in Biomedical Science (Genetics) in the Department of Clinical, Pharmaceutical and Biological Science at the University of Hertfordshire. She holds a PhD in Biology awarded summa cum laude from the University of Alcala, Spain, in 2005, where she conducted molecular characterization of the transcriptional regulator ZmMRP-1 in maize, and a B.S. in Science (Cell and Molecular Biology) from the same institution completed in 2000. Her academic career includes postdoctoral research positions at the Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (UPM-INIA) at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid from 2006 to 2013, at Rothamsted Research from 2013 to 2017, and a visiting scientist role there in 2017, along with earlier roles at Universidad de Alcala and a secondment at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. Dr Barrero Sicilia’s research focuses on plant molecular biology, particularly elucidating mechanisms of seed development and germination, plant responses to abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, cold and high temperature, and the role of the ABA phytohormone, with applications to improving agronomic crops using quantitative genetics and next-generation sequencing. She has contributed to key publications including studies on lipid remodelling in response to cold stress published in Plant Science in 2017 and mannans in Brachypodium distachyon seed germination in the Journal of Experimental Botany in 2015. In the Life Sciences faculty at the University of Hertfordshire, she also engages in teaching, student supervision and collaborative projects within the Biosciences Research Group.