Staff Profile

Dr. Patricia Lopez-Calcagno joined Newcastle University as a Lecturer in Plant Biology in 2022. Her expertise covers molecular biology, biochemistry and leaf physiology. Her research interests focus the use of synthetic biology and transgenics to develop strategies to optimize crop performance and use plants as biofactories with the aim of ensuring food security in a changing world. 

Patricia earned her bachelor's degree in biology from the Universidad de los Andes, Venezuela, where she worked on protein biochemistry. She went on to earn her doctorate in biology from the University of Essex, UK, where she explored the in vivo importance of CP12, a chloroplastic intrinsically unstructured protein involved in the regulation of photosynthetic enzymes. Between 2013 and 2022, Patricia joined the RIPE consortium (https://ripe.illinois.edu), where her work focused on manipulating RuBP regeneration to increase plant photosynthetic performance and yield potential.

Publications:

Simkin A.J., Alqurashi M., Lopez-Calcagno P.E., Headland L.R. and Raines C.A. (2023) The Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase A and B subunits are both essential to maintain photosynthetic efficiency. Plant Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiad256

Heyno E., Ermakova M., Lopez‐Calcagno P.E., Woodford R., Brown K.L., Matthews J.S.A, Osmond B., Raines C.A., von Caemmerer S. (2022) Rieske FeS overexpression in tobacco provides increased abundance and activity of cytochrome b6f. Physiologia Plantarum. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.13803

Ermakova M., Lopez-Calcagno P.E., Furbank R.T., Raines C.A., von Caemmerer S. (2022) Increased sedoheptulose-1, 7-bisphosphatase content in Setaria viridis does not affect C4 photosynthesis. Plant Physiology https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiac484

Moreno-García, B. López-Calcagno, P.E., Raines, C.A. and Sweetlove, L. J. (2021) Suppression of metabolite shuttles for export of chloroplast and mitochondrial ATP and NADPH increases the cytosolic NADH: NAD ratio in tobacco leaves in the dark. Journal of Plant Physiology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jplph.2021.153578 

López-Calcagno, P.E.*, Brown, K.L.*, Simkin, A.J.*, Fisk, S.J., Lawson, T., Raines, C.A. (2020) Stimulating photosynthetic processes increases productivity and water-use efficiency in the field. Nature Plants. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0740-1 

López-Calcagno, P.E., Fisk, S., Brown, K.L., Bull, S.E., South, P.F. and Raines, C.A. (2019) Overexpressing the H-protein of the glycine cleavage system increases biomass yield in glasshouse and field-grown transgenic tobacco plants. Plant Biotechnology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.12953 

Ermakova M., López-Calcagno, P.E., Raines C.A., Furbank R. and von Caemmerer S. (2019) Overexpression of the Rieske FeS protein of the Cytochrome b6f complex increases C4 photosynthesis. Communications Biology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0561-9

Simkin, A. J., López-Calcagno, P. E. & Raines, C. A. (2019) Feeding the world: Improving photosynthetic efficiency for sustainable crop production. Journal of Experimental Botany. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ery445

South, P.F., Cavanagh, A.P., López‐Calcagno, P.E., Raines, C.A. and Ort, D.R. (2018) Optimizing photorespiration for improved crop productivity. Journal of integrative plant biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jipb.12709

López-Calcagno, P.E., Abuzaid, A. O., Lawson, T. and Raines, C.A. (2017) Arabidopsis CP12 mutants have reduced levels of phosphoribulokinase and impaired function of the Calvin Benson cycle. Journal of Experimental Botany. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erx084 

Simkin, A.J., López -Calcagno, P.E., Davey, P.A., Headland, L. R.,Lawson, T., Timm, S., Bauwe, H. and Raines, C.A. (2017) Simultaneous stimulation of the sedoheptulose 1,7-bisphosphatase, fructose 1,6-bisphophate aldolase and the photorespiratory glycine decarboxylase H protein increases CO2 assimilation, vegetative biomass and seed yield in Arabidopsis. Plant Biotechnology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.12676

Exposito-Rodriguez, M., Laissue, P.P., López-Calcagno, P.E., Mullineaux, P.M., Raines, C.A., Simkin A.J. (2017) Development of pGEMINI, a plant Gateway destination vector allowing the simultaneous integration of two cDNA via a single LR-clonase event. Plants. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants6040055 

López-Calcagno, P.E., Howard, T.P. and Raines, C.A. (2014) The CP12 protein family: a thioredoxin-mediated metabolic switch?. Frontiers in Plant Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2014.00009

López-Calcagno, P.E., Moreno, J., Cedeño, L., Labrador, L., Concepción, J.L. and Avilán, L. (2009) Cloning, expression and biochemical characterization of mitochondrial and cytosolic malate dehydrogenase from Phytophthora infestans. Mycological Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mycres.2009.02.012

Modules (2023/2024)

• Advances in Plant Science Research (NES3308), Module Lead
• Current Research in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NES3309)
• MRes in Biotechnology and Biodesign, Research Dissertation Projects (NES8398)