Dr. Alejandro Garrido-Maestu holds a master’s in molecular biology and PhD from the University of Vigo, focused on the development of real-time PCR-based methods for the detection of foodborne pathogens. He worked for over 7 years as an analyst for the Microbiology Laboratory of ANFACO-CECOPESCA. His first postdoctoral appointment was in the US, where he joined the Emerging Pathogens Institute (University of Florida) to work on the development of chitosan nanoparticles to be used as natural antimicrobials. In July 2015 he joined the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory as a Marie Curie COFUND Research Fellow. In 2018, he reached a Staff Researcher, and tenured in 2023, position in the Food Quality and Safety Research Group. In 2024 he joined the Institute of Marine Research, which belongs to the Spanish National Research Council, as Tenured Scientist. He is interested in the development, and application, of molecular methods such as PCR/ qPCR, LAMP or RPA, for the detection and quantification of foodborne pathogens, the implementation of bacteriophages as fast detection tools, and the wider application of next-generation sequencing technologies, mainly focused on long-read MinION sequencing, in the food industry for the identification and characterization of microbial pathogens. Lastly, to make all these different technologies successful, he has also been working in novel sample treatment approaches to significantly reduce turnaround times of classical microbiological methods.
