Pedro Inostroza
Researcher
Department of Biological & EnvironmentalAbout Pedro Inostroza
I am Principal Investigator (PI) working in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences (BIOENV) and part of the FRAM - Centre for Future Chemical Risk Analysis and Management at the University of Gothenburg. My scientific background is aquatic ecology, environmental chemistry, and ecotoxicology. I studied the pollution dynamic of organic micropollutants and their effect at the population genetic level during my PhD at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ. I received my PhD degree from the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Sciences and Natural Sciences at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany.
Research and teaching
My research interests are the assessment of mixtures of chemicals in environmental samples and understanding how genomic and functional genomics patterns are affected by this complex chemical contamination in aquatic ecosystems (marine and freshwater). I focus on organic micropollutants (pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and industrial chemicals) and to a lesser extent inorganic pollutants (heavy metals). I integrate high-resolution data sets of chemicals in order to build pollution fingerprints associated with pollution sources. I use DNA-based tools (environmental DNA, metabarcoding, genomics, and transcriptomics) to get new insights on how aquatic organisms (microbial communities, macroinvertebrates, and fish) response to chemical contamination in stressed aquatic environments. I am particularly interested in linking functional chemical features (mode of action) and genomic and gene expression responses of stressed organisms in the field applying an ecotoxicogenomic approach.
I lecture “Molecular methods and omics in community ecotoxicology” in the course Ecotoxicology with emphasis on ecology (BIO430) for students of the master program in Ecotoxicology at the University of Gothenburg. I have supervised several students conducting their master thesis and hosted students part of the ERASMUS+ programme.
Current projects
2021-2024: Mixture pollution in agricultural streams: linking the effect of chemicals to the genome of freshwater organisms using an ecotoxicogenomic approach. Principal Investigator. (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS: 2020-00976)
2016-2021: FRAM: Centre for Future Chemical Risk Assessment and Management at the University of Gothenburg. Work package co-leader. (UGOT Challenges).
Collaboration and Networking
I collaborate with several colleagues including Prof. Thomas Backhaus, Prof. Ingela Dahllöf, and Natàlia Corcoll at BIOENV. I have several collaborations outside BIOENV, PD Dr. Werner Brack (Head of the Department of Effect-Directed Analysis at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ), Prof. Renato Quinones (Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Aquaculture Research (INCAR) at the University of Concepcion), and Prof. Marco Salamanca (Director of the Chemistry Oceanography Laboratory (LOQ) at the University of Concepcion).
I am an active member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), BECC (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate), and Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development (GMV). I review for different peer-reviewed journals (e.g. ES&T, STOTEN, Environment Pollution, Journal of Environmental Management, Microbial Ecology, and Water Research).
Future students
Master students are welcome to contact me for an internship and/or thesis project. If you are not in Sweden, we can apply to the ERASMUS+ programme. PhD students looking for short or long stay are welcome to contact me for funding opportunities. Independent postdoctoral are welcome to join my group and apply jointly for fundings (e.g. Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship).
Publications
Here the full list of scientific articles