I am presently combining experimental, evolutionary and dynamic modelling approaches to address questions on the genetic interactions that govern plant development and the evolution of plant form. I am very interested in gaining a deeper and more technical view of dynamic non-linear models that may be useful tools for understanding how genetic variation maps onto phenotypic variation. I am a biologist by training and plants have always been the main source of inspiration in my scientific career, but I took a few courses on mathematics and have acquired some computational tools that I have applied in the different biological areas in which I have experience. These range from population dynamics and genetics of tropical forest trees to the field that now occupies most of my research efforts: molecular genetics and evolution of plant developmental mechanisms. Our experimental work focuses on Arabidopsis and Lacandonia schismatica and our main molecular focus is around MADS box genes.

I actively collaborate in a multidisciplinary group involving mathematicians, physicists and biologists from UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico). We hold a permanent seminar that was organized by the group of Biomathematics at the Faculty of Sciences initiated by Dr. Germinal Cocho and collaborators. I am presently working with one of my graduate students, Carlos Espinosa, and a professor from the Institute of Applied Mathematics and Systems (UNAM), Dr. Pablo Padilla, who is greatly expanding our technical capacity in mathematical modelling. We are jointly working on several projects that aim at integrating the molecular genetic data gathered for various aspects of plant development.