» Academic and Professional Experience

2001-2004. PhD Thesis: Junca H. 2004. Characterization of Genetic Potential, Catabolic Structure, and Degrading Activities of Microbial Communities from Oligotrophic Aquifers during Adaptation to Organic Contaminants" AMICO EC project (FP5). Doctoral Thesis, TU-Braunschweig.  Thesis awarded with Summa Cum Laude, Supervisor: PD Dr. Dietmar Pieper 

2008-present. Postdoctoral Research Scientist. Research Groups Molecular Biotechnology & Research Group Microbial Genetics, CorpoGen, Bogota DC, Colombia.

2008-present. Associate Researcher.  Center of Research Excellence Colombian Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics of Extreme Environments - GeBiX, Colombia.

2010-present. Head of Research Group. RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics and Evolution | CorpoGen, Bogota DC, Colombia.

» Memberships and Awards

1998- Young Researcher fellowship. National Institute for Development of Science and Technology of Colombia, Colciencias

1998- Member of Colombian Association for Advancement of Science ACAC

2004- Doctoral Title awarded with Summa Cum Laude

2006- Member of the American Society for Microbiology - ASM

2006- Fellowship from FEMS.

2006- Member of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology – VAAM (Germany)

2006- Member of the Public Library of Science (PLoS)

2010- Founding Member and President 2010-2012 of the Colombian Society for Microbiology (ACM)

2010- Third Vice-president of the Latin-American Association for Microbiology (ALAM) 

» Reviewer for international journals (>55 articles since 2003)

Environmental Microbiology (Blackwell Publishing)

Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications)

Trends in Biotechnology (Elsevier)

FEMS Microbiology Ecology (under Elsevier or Blackwell)

Journal of Applied Microbiology (Wiley)

Microbiology-SGM (Society of General Microbiology, UK)

Mycological Research (Cambridge Journals)

FEMS Microbiology Letters (under Elsevier or Blackwell)

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology (Springer)

Bulletin of Marine and Coastal Research (Invemar)

Bioresource Technology (Elsevier)

Journal of Environmental Quality (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA)

European Journal of Soil Biology (Elsevier)

  
Publications in international peer-reviewed journals

External repositories:     
                    
                              {PubMed]
                              {Google Scholar}

Full list + download links:

Compressed ZIP file (~14 MB) containing all my publications

(Version: October 2010) in PDF format:

Book chapters

  Pérez-Pantoja D, Donoso R, Junca H, González B and Pieper DH. 2010. Phylogenomics of aerobic bacterial degradation of aromatics. In Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Editor-in-chief: Ken Timmis. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-3-540-77588-1

  Junca H, Pieper DH. 2010. Functional marker gene assays for hydrocarbon degrading microbial communities - aerobic, In Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Editor-in-chief: Ken Timmis. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-3-540-77588-1

  Mehboob F, Saia F, Weelink S, Tan N, Junca H, Stams AJM and Schraa G. 2010. Microbial degradation of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons with (per)chlorate as electron acceptor. In Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Editor-in-chief: Ken Timmis. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-3-540-77588-1

  Cubillos-Ruiz A, Junca H, Baena S, Venegas I, Zambrano MM. 2009. Beyond Metagenomics: Integration of complementary approaches for the study of microbial communities. In Metagenomics: Theory, Methods and Applications - Editor: Diana Marcos. Horizon Scientific Press. ISBN:  978-1-904455-54-7

  El Fantroussi S, Agathos SN, Pieper DH, Witzig R, Cámara B, Gabriel-Jürgens L, Junca H, Zanaroli G, Fava F, Perez-Jimenez JR, Young LY, Hamonts K, Lookman R, Maesen M, Diels L, Dejonghe W, Dijk J & Springael D. 2006. Chapter IV. Biological Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sediments. In: Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sediments; Springer Verlag, pp 179-241. NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences #73: Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sediments. ISBN: 978-1-4020-4958-3. Editors: Reible D and Lanczos T, Bratislava.

  Junca H, Witzig R, Pieper DH. 2005. In situ detection of functional genes for aerobic aromatic degradation. In Tagunsghandbuch: Workshop Perspektiven molekularer und isotopischer Methoden zum Nachweis des natürlichen Schadstoffabbaus in Böden, BMBF-Förderschwerpunktes KORA und des DECHEMA-IAK "Umweltbiotechnologie Boden“ ISBN 3-89746-069-6. Frankfurt Main.

  Junca H, and Pieper DH. 2005. Chapter 12: Diagnosing the biodegradation potential of soils. In: Lens P, Grotenhuis T, Malina G, Tabak H (eds). Soil and Sediment Remediation. IWA Publishing. ISBN 1843391007. London.

Presentations at conferences

Junca H. Presentación de la Sociedad Colombiana de Microbiología - ACM (Introducing the Colombian Society for Microbiology ACM). Presentation at XX Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Microbiología ALAM2010 (XX Congress of the Latin-American Association for Microbiology ALAM) September 27-30 2010, Montevideo, Uruguay

Junca H. Estatus del poder predictor de la evolución catabólica en comunidades microbianas bajo selectores fuertes aplicando tecnologías ómicas. Invited Speaker, Environmental Microbiology Session at XX Congreso Latinoamericano de Microbiología ALAM2010 (XX Congress of the Latin-American Association for Microbiology ALAM) September 27-30 2010, Montevideo, Uruguay

Junca H. Applications of gene fingerprinting, microarrays and metagenomics to study the ecology of microbial biodegradation in monoaromatic contaminated soils under bioremediation treatments. Seminars of the Centre for Biotechnology, UFRGS. July 29, 2010, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Junca H. Metagenómica y otras ómicas. En: Seminario “Estado de la Metagenómica en Colombia" CENBIOTEP Centro de Biología Molecular y Biotecnología Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. 20 de Noviembre de 2009, Pereira, Colombia.

Junca H. Establishing a biotechnological exploration platform by metagenomic and bioinformatic studies of tropical Andean diversity: The developing case of GeBiX project consortium in Colombia. Invited speaker at Symposium VII, NGS, a Revolution in the Life Sciences, Darwin 200 South American Celebration, September 1-5 2008, Punta del Este, Uruguay.

Nijenhuis I, Martinez P, Junca H, Stelzer N, Imfeld G, Weber S, Richnow HH. In situ investigation of microbial diversity and anaerobic monochlorobenzene degradation along a vertical gradient. 19th V.M.Goldschmidt Conference 2009. June 21-26, Davos, Switzerland.

Duarte M, Ferreira-da-Silva F , Plumeier I , Bielecka A, Cámara B , Junca H , Manaia CM , Pieper DH and Nunes OC. Characterization of a new molinate hydrolase from G. molinativorax ON4T. 3rd FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists. June 28 –  July 2, 2009. Gottenburg, Sweden.

Vílchez R, Junca H, Geffers R and Pieper DH. Catabolic Microarray for Environmental Pollutant Contaminated Samples. 3rd FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists. June 28 –  July 2, 2009. Gottenburg , Sweden.

Junca H. Metagenomics and other omics. Talk at the ICGEB Theoretical and Practical Course on 'Metagenomics and Bioinformatics June 20 – 26, 2009, Bogotá, Colombia

Plumeier I, Vaz-Moreira I, Barreiros L, Camara B, Bielecka A, Duarte M, Junca H, Pieper DH, Nunes OC, Characterization of a new molinate hydrolase. 4^th European Bioremediation Conference. September 3-6, 2008, Chania, Crete, Greece.

Mehboob F, Junca H, Schraa G, Stams AJM. Oxidation of alkanes coupled to chlorate reduction by Pseudomonas chloritidismutans AW-1T June 9-10 2008, Scientific Symposium “Soil & Water 2008”, NWO (the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research and SKB (Netherlands Center for Soil Quality Management and Knowledge Transfer), Zeist, the Netherlands.  

Junca H, Métodos de detección e interpretaciones acerca de la distribución y diversidad de rutas catabólicas de hidrocarburos en comunidades microbianas ambientales. I Encuentro Internacional de Biotecnología, Actualidades, Retos y Tendencias de la Biotecnología Mundial  – BIOUNALMED, Posgrado en Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Marzo 10-14, 2008, Medellín, Colombia.

Jakoblinnert A, Witzig R, Hecht H-J, Pieper DH & Junca H.  Assessment of toluene/biphenyl/isopropylbenzene dioxygenase gene diversity in polluted soils shows the presence of unusual sequence length polymorphisms. VAAM 2007, Annual Conference of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology. April 1-4, 2007, Osnabrück, Germany.

Pieper DH, Witzig R, Camara B, Ali HAH, Junca H. Catabolic gene landscapes in contaminated environments. Eurobiotech 2007. April 25-27, 2007, Krakow, Poland.

Junca H & Pieper DH. Reconstructing the phylogeny of ring hydroxylating dioxygenases for culture-independent insights on the ecology of aerobic biodegradation of aromatics. Poster presentation at ISME-11, August 20-25, 2006. Vienna, Austria.

 Junca H. Comprehensive detection of bacterial catabolic gene families: towards a concerted understanding of the ecology of biodegradation. Speaker at Special Session "Molecular tools for environmental pollution diagnosis" at 2nd FEMS Congress. July 4-8, 2006, Madrid, Spain.

 Junca H. In situ detection of functional genes for aerobic aromatic degradation. Invited speaker at: Workshop Perspektiven molekularer und isotopischer Methoden zum Nachweis des natürlichen Schadstoffabbaus in Böden, BMBF-Förderschwerpunktes KORA und des DECHEMA-IAK "Umweltbiotechnologie - Boden". Sept 29-30, 2005, FAL, Braunschweig, Germany.

Huu NB, Ha TCD, Junca H, Pieper DH. Analysis of microbial community structure in heavy and long-term herbicide contaminated soils . Workshop Perspektiven molekularer und isotopischer Methoden zum Nachweis des natürlichen Schadstoffabbaus in Böden, BMBF-Förderschwerpunktes KORA und des DECHEMA-IAK "Umweltbiotechnologie - Boden". Sept. 29-30, 2005, FAL, Braunschweig, Germany.

 Junca H, and Pieper DH. Culture dependent and culture independent evidences for a higher fitness of Pseudomonas spp. in response to benzene pollution during in situ adaptation of a Rhodococcus spp. dominated soil community. Poster at Pseudomonas 2005, 10th International Congress on Pseudomonas. Aug 27-31, 2005. Marseille, France.

Patoni M, Pieper DH, Katsivela E, Kalogerakis N, and Junca H. Detection by culture-independent methods of a predominating Dietzia-like species and of alkane hydroxylase sequences similar to the A. borkumensis alkB1 gene in coastal petroleum waste sludge. Poster at 3rd European Biotechnology Conference. July 4-7, 2005, Chania, Greece.

Witzig R, Junca H, Hecht H.-J, Pieper DH. Application of PCR-SSCP for detection and differentiation of Rieske non-heme iron oxygenases suggests a predominant functional role of isopropylbenzene dioxygenases in BTEX-contaminated soils. Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft International Workshop “Development and control of functional biodiversity at micro- and macro-scales” October 5-7, 2005, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Neuherberg/Munich, Germany

Pieper DH, Witzig R, Cámara B, Gabriel-Jürgens, H and Junca H. Accumulating basic knowledge on biodegradation processes and use of this knowledge for analyzing catabolic potential and metabolic networks in situ by culture-independent approaches. Oral presentation at NATO Advanced Research Workshop on the Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sediments, May 18-21, 2005, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.

Junca H & Pieper DH. Application of molecular fingerprinting to analyse non-cultured environmental genomes: exploring the effects of pollution on sequence diversity of gene families involved in aromatic degradation. Poster at ESF Workshop on Environmental Genomics and Environmental Metagenomics. November 18-20, 2004, Granada, Spain.

 Del Portillo P, Chacón-Martínez C, Anzola JM, Rojas A, Hernández JF, Junca H & Ocampo W. Caracterización molecular y bioquímica de una hemicelulasa del hongo fitopatógeno Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. dianthi. Oral presentation at the V Molecular Microbiology Meeting of the Spanish Society for Microbiology, September 15-17, 2004, Jaca, Spain.

 Junca H & Pieper DH. Improved tools to determine shifts in functional gene diversity: from fitness in communities to sequence polymorphisms affecting activities. Oral Presentation at Vereinigung für Allgemeine und Angewandte Mikrobiologie Jahrestagung 2004- VAAM2004. March 28-31, 2004, Braunschweig, Germany.

Junca H & Pieper DH. New application of PCR-SSCP to characterize polymorphisms in aromatic ring fission dioxygenases as a fingerprint of catabolic potential in natural microbial communities. Poster at the 7th Symposium on Bacterial Genetics and Ecology – BAGECO7. June 15-19, 2002, Bergen, Norway.

Carbajo JM, Junca H, González T, Zapico E, Terrón MC, Vilar JC, González AE. Effect of tanic acid and waste-waters in the expression of laccase gene in the white rot fungi Coriolopsis gallica. Poster at the 5th European Congress on Fungal Genetics. March 21-23, 2000, Arcachon, France.

Junca H, Hernández JF, De Portillo P. Molecular identification of the causal agent of wild disease of carnation. Oral presentation at the XII National Scientific Meeting, ACAC. November 2-4, 1998, Bucaramanga, Colombia.

August 2010

 
 
  http://www.corpogen.org/howardjunca

» Other interests and activities

Drumming

II am a professional drummer, with more than 20 years experience playing pop & rock music (hard rock, metal, progressive, latin and jazz rock).

I was the drummer for the recordings of Colombian rock bands Kabbalah 7 (1991-1995) and Aquanova (1995-1998) in Bogota; for the Spanish Indie rock band Viciana (1999-2001) in Madrid, and Drummer for the National Spanish TV Orchestra (Canal 1 TVE, 2000-2001) in Madrid.

I have vast experience in studio recording sessions and alive. Since 2008, back in Colombia, I have been involved as drummer or producer of various local artists such as Frank Font (pop rock), Julian Blanco (rock), Soul Warriors (power metal), Trux (metal).

Currently I am a drummer for studio recoding sessions for selected projects in different sound recording studios in Bogota and neighbouring areas.

I am not sponsored or endorsing any particular brand. My basic equipment includes a collection of Zildjian (K and Avedis 20" ping ride, 16" crashes and 12" splash), Sabian (22" Paragon Ride and AA 14" and 18" crashes, 10" splash and 13" hi-hats), Istanbul (15" Classic paper thin crash), Anatolian (17" Ultimate One crash) and Wuhan Cymbals (assorted 12", 14" and 18" Chinas and 14" heavy rock hi-hats), and Meinl (Raker 13 soundwave hi-hats and 10" splash) and a 6-piece 1995 well aged mahogany wood Tama Rockstar drum set (toms 10", 12", 13", 16" and bass drum 22") with a main 14" chrome steel Tama snare drum plus an auxiliary 13" x 6" piccolo Mapex maple snare drum. For toms, heads are Evans G2 on top. My set of microphones are (dynamic) ElectroVoice Co4, SM57, Behringer XM8500, and Senheiser for drums and percussion; and various small and large diaphragm condenser microphones (AKG and Behringer). I have a Korg digital recording studio D3200 to capture drums in 4 to 12 tracks (depending of the project) simultaneously at a maximum of 48 Khz at 24 bits. I have triggers to switch on an Alesis D4 percussion sound module and Yamaha pads.

You can hear some old and recent performances and recordings at

Myspace: http://soundcloud.com/howard-junca

Youtube: www.youtube.com/howardjunca

Ecology and environmental interests and projects

My father and I, we are the owners of a private natural reserve for biological resources conservation and educational purposes in Tabio, Cundinamarca, Colombia.

The idea of this preservation project my father had planned and developed, based on the previous inspiring experiences of Manuel Salazár (Manuel Semilla) and Tomás Issa, in Marsella, Risalaralda, Colombia, consists in the involvement of any individual to contribute or to directly buy key areas for nature conservation, usually river basins of low economical value, in order to stop and avoid incompatible agricultural practices, and to plant and restore these areas with native vegetation. This also helps to control the access and the possible negative effects of people walking into water-producing fragile areas, and thus, aiming to avoid its contamination.

The reserve has the key function to serve as an educational lab place where primary and high school students are guided, hearing talks about the importance of nature conservation and water protection. Additionally, my father, Armando Junca, is the author of the first environmental education book approved by the Ministry of Education of Colombia for schools teaching nation-wide (Hacia una educación ambiental, Oveja Negra)

The example of this experience is found in a small area in Tabio, a little town near Bogota, that is very dependent of a clean water source that, despite its importance, has not been protected by official authorities for decades. In the neighbouring 50 km around (practically all the Sabana de Bogotá) there is no other clean water source available.

Since 18 years ago my father has been protecting and doing activities for planting more than 22.000 trees, in less than 4 hectares with previously destroyed vegetation of the mountain

My father is a well-recognized environmentalist and ecologist in Colombia, with more than 30 years engangement in environment protection issues, as member and founder of various foundations and civil organizations aiming to preserve nature and to stop the destruction left to the next generations. This is a life time project he is currently fully involved and dedicated. His initiatives and personality had received the attention of local and national media.

Some TV interviews can be found at youtube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=armando+junca&search_type=&aq=f

 February 2011

 
 
  http://www.corpogen.org/howardjunca

  
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