Dr Palmiro Poltronieri is researcher at the Agrofood Department of the Italian National Research Council. He is co-founder of Biotecgen SME - a service company involved in European projects, such as RIBOREG, NANOMYC, ABSTRESS, and TOMGEM. He has also tutored researchers for another start up, Bioesplora, in the EU project TRANS-BIO. He is Associate Editor to BMC Research Notes and is editor-in-chief for Challenges, an MDPI journal. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Verona University. His current interest is on abiotic stress response in roots of tolerant and sensitive chickpea varieties, on activation of the jasmonic acid synthesis, and in the biotic stress response in model plants. o.f. d'urso graduated in biology in 2003 from university of Salento in Lecce, and holds a ph.d. in physiology from the same university. hewas researcher for the company Biotecgen in several european projects. presently is an officer in a local government agency for the control and safety of waste disposal business.