Ernesto Llamas obtained his Master's degree in Biochemical Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He received his PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG). In 2018, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship to study plant proteostasis mechanisms at the Cluster of Excellence - Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases (CECAD). Since 2021, Ernesto has been working in Alga Zuccaro's lab at the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), where he studies proteostasis mechanisms during plant-microbe interactions.

The protein homeostasis (proteostasis) network maintains proteins in their native conformations, even under stress conditions. This network balances protein synthesis, folding, and degradation. When proteins become damaged or misfolded, they are either refolded or degraded through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) or by chaperones. Under stress conditions, proteostasis signaling pathways activate to counter proteotoxic stress from misfolded and aggregated proteins. Ernesto's project investigates how proteostasis pathways are rewired during root colonization by the mutualistic fungus Serendipita indica.

Drawing inspiration from plants' remarkable resilience against harmful protein aggregates, Ernesto has identified a groundbreaking plant protein that could suppress toxic proteins associated with Huntington's disease. Based on this discovery, Ernesto is founding a startup to develop plant-based therapeutic proteins for treating neurodegenerative diseases. He recently received € 600,000 in funding from the GO-Bio initiative, under the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), to transform his innovative idea into a viable biotech venture. You can read more details on the website: https://plantman.notion.site/.