Università di Roma, Italy;Dr. Paola Vittorioso is a researcher in Plant Molecular Biology at Sapienza University of Rome, in the Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Charles Darwin”. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms regulating plant growth and development, with particular emphasis on seed dormancy and germination, light signalling, and the role of transcription factors in these processes. Over the years, her work has contributed to understanding how light and hormonal signals interact to regulate seed germination and early seedling development. More recently, her research has also expanded to the epigenetic regulation of plant development and responses to environmental stresses.

University of Milan, Italy;Prof. Giorgio Perrella is Associate Professor of Genetics at the University of Milan, Italy. He obtained his PhD in Plant Genetics from the University of Naples Federico II and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universities of Warwick and Glasgow, before returning to Italy. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to environmental signals, particularly light and temperature, with a special interest in how chromatin organization and epigenetic mechanisms contribute to the regulation of gene expression and plant development. His work has contributed to our understanding of the interplay between light signalling, chromatin dynamics, and plant growth, particularly during photomorphogenesis.