Raquel Folgado serves as The Huntington Cryopreservation Research Botanist leading the cryobiotechnology program that involves conservation science projects on avocado and wild plants. The lab focuses on developing and optimizing methods to store plant germplasm in liquid nitrogen, the safest way to ensure long-term ex situ conservation. Raquel’s work also commits to training users from other institutions and building collaborations with researchers worldwide to exchanging knowledge and skills in cryobiotechnology and plant abiotic stress.
Folgado’s scientific interest extends to a better knowledge of the nutritional requirements of plants in tissue culture conditions and their tolerance to abiotic constraints, which will help standardize cryobiotechnology tools for exceptional plant species and specialty crops like avocado.
Raquel has created in vitro repositories at The Huntington to preserve and allow the distribution of Persea, Aloe, Agave, Quercus, and Magnolia species and some cultivars with horticultural value like the avocado rootstocks or the aloe hybrids.
Folgado holds a B.S. in fundamental biology and biotechnology from Universidad de Oviedo (Spain) and a Ph.D. from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) in bioscience engineering. She is associated with scientific societies and serves as a peer reviewer for several scientific journals.