JOSE FERNANDO MORAN JUEZ
Catedrático Universidad

• Department: CIENCIAS
• Area: Fisiología Vegetal
• e-mail: jose.moranunavarra.es
• Phone number: (+34) 948 16 8018 (ext. 8018)
•   MUTILVA

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Jose Fernando Moran (Baracaldo, 1968), degree in Biochemistry (UPV-EHU), Doctorate in Chemistry (UZ), Spain. He carried out his postdoctoral stay at the University of Lincoln-Nebraska, USA (period 1996-1998), on the Functions of hemoglobins and other plant antioxidant systems. In 1998, he started up the molecular biology research lines at the Aula Dei Experimental Station (CSIC), Zaragoza. In 2003, he joined the Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineers and Biosciences (ETSIAB), at the Public University of Navarra, Spain (UPNA) as a researcher of the “Ramón y Cajal” Program. In 2008 he received the "Jerónimo de Ayanz" award from the Government of Navarra, and the mention as a researcher of the I3 program to stimulate research. In 2008, he obtained a position as associate professor in the area of Plant Physiology, and in 2021 he obtained the level of full professor. Currently he supervises the Plant Physiology and Agrobiology laboratory in Mutilva, adscribed to the “Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology (IMAB)” of the UPNA.

His research deals with signaling pathways mediated by free radicals and antioxidants, nitrogen nutrition in plants, regulation of plant response to abiotic stress and its biotechnological applications. Among his works, stand out: 1) the demonstration that severe environmental stress, such as drought, induces oxidative stress (Moran et al., 1994-853 times cited); 2) The analysis of the antioxidant/prooxidant function of plant phenolic compounds (Moran et al., 1997-484 citations); 3) The study of the decrease in 15N associated with stress due to ammonium nutrition at high concentration (Ariz et al., 2011). This work is relevant because it changed the view that ammonium only enters the plant cell as NH₄⁺ and pointed out that a large part enters as ammonia (NH₃), in gas form and without a charge; 4) Even more interesting, the demonstration that the cambialistic superoxide dismutase enzyme from Rhizobium leguminosarum found in the nucleus of the symbiotic cells of the pea root acts as an essential "friendship" messenger, whose lack avoids symbiosis establishing; 5) He has led many works on "ammonium stress in plants", and his 2016 review entitled “Mechanisms of ammonium toxicity and the quest for tolerance” is a reference article in the field. 6) He has published several works on the topic of nanotechnology. The work “Comparison of four functionalization methods of gold nanoparticles for enhancing the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)” can be highlighted (Ciaurriz et al., 2017). This work was carried out at FIDENA (Foundation for the development of Nanotechnology in Navarra) of which he was scientific supervisor and mentor. In 2024, he leads, together with Professor Víctor Martínez Merino and other UPNA researchers, the discovery of the first pathway for nitric oxide production from aminoacids in plants, which was considered an open question since the end of the 20th century.

He has led 5 projects of the Spanish Agri-Food Plan, as well as several projects with companies. He is the first author of 5 patents, the last on the uses of novel plant nitric oxide donors. He has supervised 8 doctoral theses, and many master's and degree theses. He teaches or has taught several degree courses related to Plant Biology and Physiology, in Spanish and English, in degrees from the ETSIAB-UPNA, and the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences-UPNA. He also teaches courses in the master in Environmental Agrobiology (ABA) - the only UPNA included in the ranking of the newspaper El Mundo-.

From its creation in 2009 to 2016, he was president of the non-profit Association that managed, between parents and teachers, The Navarra Waldorf School. He has directed the summer course on the "Social Importance of Plants" taught in 4 editions, 3 at the Public University of Navarra (2015; 2016; 2018), and 1 at the University of the Basque Country (2017). His 57 indexed publications (SCI) have been cited more than 5474 times with an H-index = 34 according to Google Scholar.

List of publications (Google Scholar): https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=wVoP4O8AAAAJ&hl=es