UNIQUE CHARACTERS – ALVARO SANCHEZ: Zamorano Plant Trainer

This fancy trainer. Because? It does not analyze which players will perform better, but studies which bacteria favor plant growth or help you get a certain vitamin. Alvaro Sanchez He was born in Zamora, but his parents moved to Salamanca when he was still a child. Until the age of 15, he spent every summer on the farm that belonged to his grandparents, on the outskirts of Morales del Vino. The place where he admits his curiosity about nature began.

“My uncles and my parents organized all sorts of activities, from catching insects and studying the interactions of different species to finding moles, hedgehogs and other nocturnal animals in the garden,” he recalls, before noting that in those 80s there were still almost no was. light pollution so there was a stunning night sky. Following this line, he says that every summer night he went out with his family to watch the stars. A hobby he fell in love with and wanted to learn more about. So he decided to read Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos.

After this, he claims that his point of view completely changed. He discovered, as did the author of this story, that physics, astronomy and mathematics do not exist as entities separate from biology, history, art or human society. To this it should be added that, as he recalls, he I was not an “academic” child‘. He became bored with school and found it difficult to stay in class; He was more interested in sports. “Reading Cosmos at that age, immersing myself in Sagan’s passion for science, and seeing the connections that exist between all disciplines had a decisive influence on me. In fact, it shaped the type of science that we do now in my laboratory. “I’m still not sure if I’m a physicist or a biologist, and I don’t think it really matters.”

When he went to university, he knew he wanted to study physics. With the idea of ​​eventually specializing in Cosmologyhe entered the Autonomous University of Madrid. As he progressed through the courses, his interest in biology grew, and in fifth grade he had the opportunity to receive a full scholarship and attend his senior year at Tufts University on the outskirts of Boston. There he delved into this science.

Upon his return, Zamorano was already clear that he wanted to devote himself to the line between biology and physics, but he was also aware that his knowledge base in biology was very weak, so he took advantage of the La Caixa scholarship to complete his master’s thesis. degree. University of Minnesota catch up. At the same time, he took courses in biochemistry, cell biology, physiology, ecology and biophysics. After graduation, he was accepted for a doctorate in biophysics at Brandeis University. For his dissertation, he developed a project that combined mathematical models of bacterial genetic regulation and single-molecule microscopy experiments.

At this point, Sanchez says, he collaborated with other physicists working on problems in biology at MIT and Caltech, and before finishing his PhD, he had already begun working at MIT in a laboratory where he later received his doctorate. Although he was in the physics department at MIT, the laboratory in which he worked researched the ecology and evolution of microbes.

Upon completion of graduate school in 2013 led his own research group at Harvard, at the Rowland Institute. In 2016, he was offered a position as professor of microbial ecology and evolution at Yale University, and five years later he was promoted to assistant professor. Just a year later he decided to return to Spain. He closed his laboratory at Yale University and joined the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid.

The last step was returning home. The Institute of Functional Biology and Genomics (IBFG) extended its hand to him and this Zamorano decided to change the situation and contribute to the development of science in his homeland. In this sense, he explains that they have two active projects. The larger of the two, which received funding from the European Research Council (ERC), is based on studying what he considers the most important discovery he has made in his laboratory.

“The same mathematics that explains how an organism’s traits arise from the contributions of its genes can also be used to predict and understand how the properties of an ecosystem arise from the contributions of the species that form it. In genetics, it has recently been discovered that the fact that an organism’s genes interact with each other can cause the effect of new mutations to be more predictable, although the number of these interactions is astronomically large and we cannot measure them all. “, explains Alvaro Sanchez.

This work is to investigate whether the same thing happens in ecology, and they noticed that it does. “The intertwined interactions between species that make up an ecological community can make the collective properties of ecosystems more predictable, provided certain mathematical conditions are met. This fact allows us to develop mathematical and statistical models that allow us to identify ecosystems that are optimal from a functional point of view. For example, which microorganisms should we incubate together if we want to get the maximum possible amount of biofuel in the fermenter, which strains of wine yeast should we inoculate together if we want to produce a wine with certain characteristics, or what combination of microorganisms can act as a biofertilizer in a more efficient way.” .

In his opinion, the administration at the state level does not understand or value science and sometimes acts against scientists. However, he notes that despite these difficult circumstances, Salamanca has centers where advanced research is carried out, such as the IBFG, IRNASA or the CIC. Added to this, as Zamorano explains, is that the University of Salamanca has many groups that are leaders in their field at the international level. “All of this is of great value given the challenges we face.”

In this sense, it indicates that in Salamanca they have gone from one ERC project to eight or nine. In addition, he notes that center leadership is making significant efforts to attract talent, create new areas of research, and select continuing education programs that will significantly increase funding for our centers. Proof of this is that in recent years excellent young groups have been brought into the system and initiatives such as the Salamanca City Council talent attraction program have been launched, which have produced impressive results. “Of the five researchers involved in this program, two received ERC Consolidator status.. Only through these two projects, twice as much money was attracted to our city as was invested in this program. The return on investment speaks for itself,” says the scientist.