Bruno Santos

Bruno Santos is an early-career researcher in Plant Stress Physiology, with a strong interest in understanding how crops respond to abiotic and chemical stressors relevant to modern agriculture and climate change. He holds an MSc in Functional Biology and Biotechnology of Plants (2025) and a BSc in Biology (2023), both from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP). B. Santos is currently a Research Fellow at CBQF (Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry), working within the Plantech group in the HEAT-DRY project, which aims to develop heat- and drought-tolerant pea with improved nutritional quality towards climate-resilient agriculture, where he applies an integrated plant-stress approach combining controlled stress assays with physiological, biochemical, and molecular analyses. B. Santos began his scientific career at Plant Stress lab (GreenUPorto/FCUP) by studying the individual and combined phytotoxicity of copper (Cu) and glyphosate (GLY) in tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L.), focusing on morphophysiological and redox metabolism. Building on this research line during his MSc dissertation, he investigated melatonin-mediated seed priming as a mitigation strategy to reduce GLY and Cu impacts and strengthen plant stress tolerance. During this period, he also worked as a Research Fellow in an FCT-funded project directly linked to his MSc dissertation at INOV4AGRO/GreenUPorto, strengthening his experience in oxidative-stress profiling, antioxidant defence responses, and molecular analyses underpinning stress-mitigating mechanisms. Internationally, he completed an Erasmus + research stay in Limassol, Cyprus (Cyprus University of Technology) within the framework of his MSc dissertation, under the guidance of Prof. Vassilis Fotopoulos, gaining-hands on experience in a collaborative environment and expanding his molecular toolkit for plant-stress research. He also participated in an Erasmus + Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) focused on sustainable green areas to promote sustainable cities (University of Tuscia, Italy). He has communicated his research through posters and oral presentations at national and international meetings and received the Best Oral Communication award in the Biological Sciences area at IJUP’23. Beyond research, he contributes to the scientific community through event organization (Organizing Committee, 4th EUGLOH Plant Science Meeting) and mentoring activities, including tutoring of high school students internships on stress mitigation topics in tomato plants. He is an active member of COST Action CA24156 (PrimSeedPower), reflecting his engagement in international networks focused on seed priming and crop resilience. He has complemented his research training with R programming (data analysis) and advanced coursework in environmental epigenetics and risk assessment.