Dr. Alejandra Moenne was born in Concepción, Chile, in 1961. She studied Biochemistry at the University of Concepción from 1979 to 1983. She completed her undergraduate thesis at the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, in 1984. She completed her PhD thesis at the Comissariat de L´Energie Atomique (CEA) in Saclay, Paris, France, from 1985 to 1989. She joined the University of Santiago of Chile as an Assistant Professor in 1995, became Associate Professor in 2002, and Full Professor in 2012. Her research initially determined that the marine alga Ulva compressa (Chlorophyta) can tolerate excess copper through activation of ascorbate peroxidase and synthesis of ascorbate, and that this alga accumulates copper, iron and zinc. She investigated the mechanisms of copper tolerance through release of calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum and synthesis of hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide in mitochondria and chloroplasts, leading to activation of the antioxidant system. In 2019, she began studying copper accumulation, based on the hypothesis that copper is accumulated through binding to glutathione (GSH), phytochelatins (PCs) and/or metallothioneins (MTs). In 2024, she discovered that U. compressa accumulates copper as insoluble copper sulfide nanoparticles and that this accumulation increases in response to a sulfur donor (NaHS). Cadmium and zinc did not accumulate as sulfides. Her future research will focus on the persulfidation of heavy-metal extrusion transporters.