Fitxa persona

Historial investigador. With more than 30 years of research experience, my predoctoral training focused on heterotrophic bacteria from aquatic ecosystems and concluded with the Doctoral Thesis 'Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of environmental strains of Pseudomonas' (Extraordinary Prize 1992). My postdoctoral training at the Technical University of Munich, focused on molecular taxonomy, including nucleic acid sequencing, design of probes for 'in situ' (FISH) detection and identification of Vibrio vulnificus, a human and eel pathogen, in aquatic environments, and its typing by ribotyping and RAPD profiles. Since March 1996, I lead the research group on 'Molecular Taxonomy' as researcher at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA, CSIC, Valencia). My research career on food microbiology focused on the development and application of PCR techniques for the detection, quantification and identification of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and viruses) covering food safety and quality aspects: Development of rapid methods based on 'real time PCR' for the quantitative detection of food pathogens (enteric bacteria and viruses), as well as their viable / infectious forms (vqPCR); Validation of PCR methods for detection of pathogens in food and water matrices and their adaptation to routine analysis. Other research focuses on lactic acid bacteria from traditionally fermented food: isolation, identification and biotechnological characterization for functional food applications. Research has been funded by 47 projects (EU, National, Autonomous), leading 20 of them. Among the projects led in the last 10 years, it is worth highlighting: 'Microbiological safety of fresh cut vegetables: development of new diagnostic methods (AGL2009-08603 / ALI), through which it was set up a common method for the concentration and detection of viable bacteria and infective viruses by qPCR, after treatment with PMA, and its validation in the fresh-cut vegetables industry. In the field of functional foods, by the μ-Andes project 'Microbiota of Andean Food: tradition for healthy products' (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IRSES GA nº247650) the natural populations of Andean traditional fermented products were characterized, generating a wide collection of lactic acid bacteria, and by the ProInfant project 'Vegetal foods with probiotic functionality for malnourished child populations' (PCIN-2017-003-CYTED P916PTE0233) in which a selected strain is being evaluated as probiotic by an intervention study. In addition, an in situ riboflavin fortified kefir-like cereal-based beverage was designed using selected strains from the μ-Andes project. Regarding bacterial identification using molecular techniques, I led the project 'Development of a library of MALDI-TOF profiles for the identification of bacterial strains present in drinking water (DRINKING WATER LIBRARY)' (RTC-2015-4496-2) that has contributed to expanding the database of MALDI profiles, revealing that 1/3 of the unidentified profiles correspond to new taxa. Currently, I am Director of the Spanish Type Culture Collection (at UVEG) (since 2012), the coordinator of the Spanish Network of Microorganisms (REDESMI) and the Spanish Network of Excellence (MicroBioSpain, www.microbiospain.org). In addition, I am the Chair of the Interim National Coordinators Forum of the 'Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure, MIRRI', supported by the EU project 'Implementation and Sustainability of Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure for 21st Century (IS_MIRRI21), in which I am PI (UVEG)..