Luis Filipe Das Neves Kalchhauser Cunha

Experiência

Luís Filipe das Neves Kalchhauser Cunha is a Coordinating Researcher at the Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE), University of Coimbra. He holds a PhD in Biology (Molecular and Cellular Biology). His research focuses on soil biodiversity, environmental genomics and ecosystem resilience under global change. He investigates how soil organisms and communities respond and adapt to disturbance (e.g., land-use change, drought, fire and contamination), and how these biological processes regulate ecosystem functioning. His work integrates molecular ecology, multi-omics approaches (metabarcoding, metagenomics, transcriptomics), experimental soil–biota systems and bioinformatics, linking genomic variation and functional traits to biogeochemical processes. Luís has participated in and led national and European research projects, including Horizon Europe initiatives on soil health. He founded and coordinates the Environmental Genomics Laboratory (EnGel-E3G), supporting high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic analysis for soil and environmental research. His current interests centre on genome-enabled soil biology and the development of mechanistic frameworks for soil resilience and functional reorganisation. He has authored 39 peer-reviewed publications, with 873 citations, h-index 19 and i10-index 25. He is committed to research-led training, supervising MSc and PhD students in molecular ecology, soil biology and environmental genomics.