Head of Department “Crop Quantitative Genetics”
Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Professional experience

• HEAD OF DEPARTMENT “CROP QUANTITIVE GENETICS”
  Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology
  (2023 – present)

• PROJECT LEADER
  Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology
  (2019 – 2022)

• POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
  Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology
  (2015 – 2019)

• PhD STUDENT
  Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology
  (2011 – 2015)

• RESEARCHER
  Hebron University, West Bank-Palestine
  (2007 – 2011)

 Education and Degrees

• PhD / MOLECULAR PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
  Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology and Potsdam University, Germany (2015)

• MSc. / NATURAL RESOURCES & SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
  Hebron University, Hebron, Palestine (2007)

• BSc. / SCIENCE, BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
  Hebron University, Hebron, Palestine (2002)

Summary       

Over 140 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, 23 as first or co-first author, six as corresponding or co-corresponding author. Over 3500 citations (h-index: 33, Google Scholar). Several invited talks to national or international conferences and research seminars. In the past years, I have conducted GWAS and QTL mapping in tomato, maize and other plant species. In addition to QTL mapping, I have several years of experience in metabolic profiling (using both GC-MS and LC-MS). My main interests are; crop improvement, nutritional quality, domestication and plant breeding.

Teaching activities and supervision of students

• LECTURER IN FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS
  Potsdam University (± 22h/year)
  2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

• CO-SUPERVISION
  Four PhD students and two Master students
  2018

Prizes

JEFF-SCHELL-PRIZE, 2015
Max Planck Institute of Molecular plant physiology, Germany

Selected Publications

Alamillo JM, López CM, Martínez Rivas FJ, Torralbo F, Bulut M, Alseekh S (2023) Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein and hairy roots: a perfect match for gene functional analysis and crop improvement. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 79: 102876.

Fernie AR, Alseekh S (2022) Metabolomic selection-based machine learning improves fruit taste prediction. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 119(9): e2201078119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2201078119.

Fernie, A.R., and Alseekh, S. (2022). Unravelling the molecular networks that regulate kiwifruit flavor. The New Phytologist 233, 8-10.

Aarabi, F., Rakpenthai, A., Barahimipour, R., Gorka, M., Alseekh, S., Zhang, Y., Salem, M.A., Brückner, F., Omranian, N., Watanabe, M., Nikoloski, Z., Giavalisco, P., Tohge, T., Graf, A., Fernie, A.R., and Hoefgen, R. (2021). Sulfur deficiency-induced genes affect seed protein accumulation and composition under sulfate deprivation. Plant Physiology 187, 2419-2434.

Aksenov. A.A., Laponogov., I…. Alseekh S., Fernie A.R., Mirnezami R., Vasiliou V., Schmid R., Borisov R.S., Kulikova L.N., Knight R., Wang M., Hanna G.B., Dorrestein P.C., and Veselkov, K. (2021). Auto-deconvolution and molecular networking of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry data. Nature Biotechnology 39, 169-173.

Alseekh S., Aharoni A., Brotman Y., Contrepois K., D’Auria J., Ewald C.J., Ewald J., Fraser P.D., Giavalisco P., Hall R.D., Heinemann M., Link H., Luo J., Neumann S., Nielsen J., Leonardo Souza P., Saito K., Sauer U., Schroeder C.F., Schuster S., Siuzdak, G., Skirycz A., Sumner W.L., Snyder P.M., Tang H., Tohge T., Wang Y., Wen W., Wu S., Xu G., Nicola Zamboni N., R. Fernie A.R. (2021) Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics: a guide for annotation, quantification and best reporting practices. Nature Methods. 18: 747–756.

Alseekh. S., and Mohammad, A.G. (2009). The effect of water harvesting techniques on runoff, sedimentation, and soil properties. Environmental management. 44, 37-45.