Fitz Gerald Salazar Silao

My present work in Prof. Robin Klemm's group, which is funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), is focused on the metabolic underpinning by which the mitochondria, together with its partner organelles, generate the signalling molecules that communicate the state of cellular organelles to activate the transcriptional programs driving adipocyte differentiation. Before joining Prof. Klemm's group, I had been a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Joanna Poulton at the Department of Women's and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, where I focused primarily on developing photobiomodulation (PBM) as an alternative therapeutic strategy for mitochondrial disease. Before moving to the UK, I had been a senior researcher in the lab of Prof. Per Ljungdahl at SciLifeLab in Sweden, where I also earned my PhD in Molecular Bioscience (Stockholm University) under a Marie Curie ITN pre-doctoral fellowship; here, I studied the role of mitochondrial proline metabolism and amino acid-dependent alkalization in the virulence of human fungal pathogens (Candida spp.). I received my earlier education (BSc Biochemistry, MSc Microbiology) in the Philippines, where I am also a Registered Chemist (RCh), Registered Microbiologist (RM), and a Professional Food Technologist (PFT).