Alexander Vergara Robles

Postdoc (2020-)

• Umeå University with Dr. Åsa Strand

Postdoc (2015-2020)

• Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU) with Dr. Vaughan Hurry

Postdoc (2014-2015)

• Universidad de La Serena with Dr. Cristian Ibanez

Senior Bioinformatician (2011-2014)

• Brotar Ltd.

Postdoc (2009-2010)

• Universidad de Chile with Dr. Lorena Norambuena.

PhD. student (2004-2009)

• Universidad de Chile with Dr. Ariel Orellana as supervisor (UNAB) and Dr. Rodrigo Gutierrez as co-supervisor (PUC).

Graduate student (2003-2004)

• Universidad de Chile with Dr. Ariel Orellana.

• Castro C., Rojas J,Ortiz J., Sanhueza-Leppe R., Vergara A., Poblete F., Escobar E., Coba de La Peña T., Ostria-Gallardo E., Bascunan-Godoy L. (2024)

Nitrogen Stress Memory in Quinoa: Maternal Effects on Seed Metabolism and Offspring Growth and Physiology. Physiologia Plantarum

• Hermida-Carrera C., Vergara A., Cervela-Cardona L., Jin X., Björklund S., Strand Å. (2024)

CDK8 of the mediator kinase module connects leaf development to the establishment of correct stomata patterning by regulating the levels of the transcription factor SPEECHLESS (SPCH). Plant, cell & environment

• Ojeda-May P., Vergara A. (2024)

Effects of Colored Noise in the Dynamic Motions and Conformational Exploration of Enzymes. Foundations, 4(3), 324–335.

• Abdel-Fattah WR., Carlsson M., Hu GZ., Singh A., Vergara A., Aslam R., Ronne H., Björklund S. (2024)

Growth-regulated co-occupancy of Mediator and Lsm3 at intronic ribosomal protein genes. Nucleic Acids Research.

• Blomberg J., Tasselius V., Vergara A., Karamat F., Imran QM.,Strand Å., Rosvall M., Björklund S. (2024)

Pseudomonas syringae infectivity correlates to altered transcript and metabolite levels of Arabidopsis Mediator mutants. Scientific Reports volume 14, Article number: 6771.

• Bai B., Schiffthaler B., Van der Horst S., Willems L., Vergara A., Karlström J.,Mähler N., Delhomme N., Bentsink L., Hanson J. (2023)

SeedTransNet: a directional translational network revealing regulatory patterns during seed maturation and germination. Journal of Experimental Botany. Volume 74, Issue 7, 2416–2432

• Hernández‐Verdeja T., Vuorijoki L., Jin X., Vergara A., Dubreuil C., Strand Å. (2022)

GENOMES UNCOUPLED1 plays a key role during the de‐etiolation process in Arabidopsis. New Phytologist 235 (1), 188-203

• Karamat F., Vergara A., Blomberg J., Crawford T., Lehotai N., Rentoft M., Strand Å., Björklund S. (2022)

Arabidopsis mutants representing each of the four Mediator modules reveal unique functions in the transcriptional response to salt stress. bioRxiv preprint

• Vergara A., Haas J.C, Aro T., Stachula P., Street NR., Hurry V. (2022)

Norway spruce deploys tissue‐specific responses during acclimation to cold. Plant, cell & environment 45 (2), 427-445

• Haas JC., Vergara A., Serrano AR, Mishra S., Hurry V., Street NR. (2021)

Candidate regulators and target genes of drought stress in needles and roots of Norway spruce. Tree Physiology 41 (7), 1230-1246

• Pinto-Irish K., Alvarez R., Coba De La Peña T., Ibanez C., Vergara A., Castro P., Castro C., Sanhueza C., Bascunan-Godoy L. (2020)

Seed characterization and early Nitrogen metabolism performance of seedlings from Altiplano and Coastal ecotypes of Quinoa. BMC Plant Biology, 20 , pp. 343.

• Nunez M.T., Osorio A., Tapia V., Vergara A., Mura C.V. (2001).

Iron-induced oxidative stress up-regulates calreticulin levels in intestinal epithelial (Caco-2) cells. J Cell Biochem. 82(4):660-5.

• Orellana A., Osorio O., Yuseff I., Vergara A., Norambuena L. (1999)

Synthesis of Polysaccharides in the Golgi apparatus from plant cells. FASEB JOURNAL 13 (7), A1514-A1514.

Computer skills

Expertise in Perl and R. Experience working with Linux and Bash scripting, Git, RStudio, RShiny, databases and HPC.

Spoken Languages

English and Spanish

I enjoy retro video games and nature.

I am a football lover who plays weekly with colleagues and friends.