Miguel Ángel Corrales Gutiérrez

I was born and I have grown in Málaga, Adalusia. As this region has one of the  best climates for crop production and an important agricultural sector, I have been surrounded of greenhouses and crop fields since my childhood.

Growing among agricultors, my innate curiosity and my passion for nature boost me to study a degree in Biology. During my university studies I was specially interested in the applications of biotechnology to crop improvements and, for this reason, I started a master and, subsequently, a PhD in Advanced Biotechnology.

In fact, my thesis was focused in the study of the interactions between abiotic and biotic stress in the Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV) - Solanaceae pathosystem. During my PhD I have the opportunity to travel in an internship to China, with the aim of continue studying these interactions and, finally, publishing the results in Journal of Plant Biotechnology.

I have also developed different tools (has transgenic plants or constructs for transient expression assays) to monitoring viral replication in TYLCV-Solanaceae pathosystem.

Following my curiosity I have started an online master in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics to complete my educational background. In the same way, I achieved the opportunity of work in SLU to continue studying host-pathogen interactions.

I arrived at SLU working as Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the laboratory of Salim Bourras (the B Lab). During my first postdoc my main focus of interest was the host-pathogen interactions between wheat and different fungal pathogens. I also developed different high throughpout phenotypical pipelines and perform phenomic studies. 

Currently, I am a postdoc in Jiasui Zhan lab. My research involves the use of machine learning (ML) models to predict disease symptoms, evolutionary analysis of field pathogen populations and molecular analysis of plant-pathogen and plant-abiotic stresses.

These studies are important in our understanding of microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions but also has the potential to impact positively in agricultural improvements.

1. Plant Pathology BI1044 (2022). Teaching Assistant in the laboratory practical ‘Molecular diagnostics of plant pathobiomes’. Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden)

2. Principles, Instrumentation, and Methodology in Genetics and Microbiology C104 (2016 - 2017). Teaching assistant in laboratory practices. Department of Cellular Biology, Genetics and Physiology, University of Malaga (Spain)

3. Vegetal Biotechnology C310 (2016 - 2017). Teaching assistant in laboratory practices. Department of Cellular Biology, Genetics and Physiology, University of Malaga (Spain)

4. University of Malaga Pre-College Summer School (2017). Teaching assistant in laboratory practices. Department of Cellular Biology, Genetics and Physiology, University of Malaga (Spain).

Currently I am external consultant in Hub-Terra (https://hub-terra.com/). Hub-Terra is Spanish start-up focused in geoespatial analysis, environmental law and modelling. My role consist in advice and analysis of data related with agriculture, phytopathology and mathematical modelling. 

#MSc in bioinformatics and biostatistics [2023]. Open University of Catalonia (UOC) & University of Barcelona (UB). Spain.

#PhD in Advanced Biotechnology [2022]. University of Málaga (UMA). Spain.

#MSc in Advanced Biotechnology [2015]. University of Málaga (UMA) and International University of Andalusia. Spain.

#BSc in Biology [2014]. University of Málaga (UMA). Spain

#Pedagogical training

- MSc in Secondary Education [2021]. Specialization in Biology & Geology. University of Málaga (UMA). Spain

- Teaching in Higher Education, basic course. [2023]. SLU. Sweden

- Education for sustainable development; course leaders. [2023]. SLU. Sweden 

# Courses and certifications:

- Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) & teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). 2022.

- ISE III certification (C1). Trinity College London. 2021

- Planification and Interpretation of Scientific work. University of Málaga. 2021

- Network Analysis in Systems Biology. Coursera. 2015

- Philosophy and Sciences. Coursera. 2015

- Experimental Methods in Systems Biology. Coursera. 2014

- Programming for everybody (Python). Coursera. 2014

- Fundamentals of Immunology. EDX. 2014

- KlexploRx: Explore Statistics with R. EDX. 2014

- Programmed cell death. Coursera. 2014

- Introduction to Systems Biology. Coursera. 2014

Master thesis

Main supervisor

1. Kumar, Harkishan Surjeeth, 2024. Towards understanding the role of Neighbor Modulated Immunity in the wheat response to Fusarium Head Blight. Second cycle, A2E. Uppsala: Dept. of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology 

2. Rodríguez Addesso, Berea, 2024. Towards understanding the role of systemic signals in modulating the wheat immune response to Fusarium Head Blight. Second cycle, A2E. Uppsala: Dept. of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology

Co-supervisor

1. Babiker, Mohammed Alkhair Mohammed Zain, 2024. Characterization Of Resistance to Fusarium Head Blight in a European Oat Panel. Second cycle, A1E. Uppsala: Dept. of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology

2. Persson, Patrik, 2025. Co-infection of different stem rust races. Second cycle, A1E. Uppsala: Dept. of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology

Papers:

2025

1.Kaur, H., Vilvert, E., Corrales Gutiérrez, M. Á., Zhan, J., Douchkov, D., Desiderio, F., Vélëz, H., & Bourras, S. (2025). Isolation and characterization of fungi associated with wheat heads and leaf blotch symptoms in Sweden. European Journal of Plant Pathology. DOI: EJPP-D-24-00824R1

2024

1.Bourras, S., Vélëz, H., Ihrmark, K., Corrales Gutierrez, M. A., Elfstrand, M., Garkava-Gustavsson, L., & Falk, K. D. (2024). Genome sequence resources from three isolates of the apple canker pathogen Neonectria ditissima infecting forest trees. PhytoFrontiers. DOI: 10.1094/PHYTOFR-05-24-0055-A

2020

Corrales-Gutiérrez, M. et al. (2020). The C4 protein from the
geminivirus Tomato yellow leaf curl virus confers drought tolerance to
Arabidopsis through an ABA-independent mechanism. Plant
Biotechnol. J. doi:10.1111/pbi.13280

Posters:

2023

An experimental approach to study multi-species diseases interactions in wheat using machine learning-aided image analysis. Corrales Gutiérrez, MA, Bourras, S. Networking symposium on plant protection and forest damage

2022

miniMORPH 1.0: portable hardware for machine learning-aided precision phenomics. Corrales Gutiérrez, MA, Prendes Rodríguez, EJ, Bourras, S. Swedish National Plant Protection

Phenomic analysis of Triticum diccocum seeds: a statistical study. Corrales Gutiérrez, MA, Desiderio, F, Maccaferri, M, Bourras, S.   Plant Breeding – The key to food security and improved foods

2017

Importance of the temperature in the interaction plant-geminivirus.  MÁ Corrales Gutierrez, E R Bejarano, A G Castillo. Spanish National Virology Congress.

2016

A transreplication-based system to monitor geminivirus replication in tomato plants. MÁ Corrales Gutiérrez, A Castillo Garriga, E Rodríguez Bejarano. COST ACTION.

Linkedin profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguelangelcorralesgutierrez/?locale=en_US