Armando Azua-Bustos

Scientist

PhD Molecular Genetics and Microbiology,M.Sc. Biological Sciences, M.Sc. Biochemistry, 2005,. I have >25 years of professional experience. Have worked in several R+D Centers (1 in Spain + 5 abroad), participated in many R+D projects, being the P.I. in 8 (European and elsewhere, tot. 5.3 M€). Currently Professor of the Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA) in Madrid, Spain and Lecturer at the Saint Louis University campus in Madrid. Originally coming from agriculture and enology, later got a formal background in Environmental Microbiology, applied to ecology, astrobiology and more recently, biotechnology. Have extensive laboratory and field-work experience, and a vast expertise in the ecology of microorganisms of extremely dry environments for: (i) discovering and characterizing new microbial species of extremely dry environments, (ii) uncover the molecular mechanisms involved in extreme desiccation tolerance of such microorganism, (iii) exploiting the use of molecular biosignatures of such microorganisms to explore for signs of life elsewhere (Mars in particular), (iv) more recently, uncover the potential applications of such microorganisms for agriculture and biomedicine.

Investigating the cosmos

Due to global warming, more than 70% of Earth continents will get much drier on time. I am learning from the lifeforms of the driest and oldest desert on Earth, the Atacama Desert on northern Chile, on how to survive extreme desiccation, to improve global agriculture, and also, how to farm on the moon and Mars.

Astrobiology, Desert Environments, Extremophiles, Mars, Molecular Biology, Xerophiles

Came from an abandoned mining town in the middle of the driest desert on Earth, built from scratch my own research line, only one of three Chileans to have given a TED talk in Vancouver.

Drawing, playing instruments