Dr. Cristina Andrés Vergés is a highly qualified professional with a PhD in Microbiology. She has a background in Human Biology and Cellular Biology and extensive experience in clinical microbiology, molecular virology and genomic surveillance. She is currently working as a Biomedical Scientist in the Microbiology Department of Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, where she has developed her research career since 2014. Her research focuses on the molecular and genomic characterisation and surveillance of clinically relevant viruses, particularly respiratory and enteric viruses, including influenza viruses, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus and SARS-CoV-2. Her work integrates clinical microbiology, molecular epidemiology and viral genomics to investigate viral genetic diversity, evolution, reassortment, recombination and the emergence of clinically relevant viral variants. She has participated in numerous national and international collaborative projects involving genomic surveillance, respiratory pathogen surveillance, enterovirus-associated disease and the development of molecular and diagnostic approaches.
Her scientific production includes up to 70 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, with several publications focused on viral genomic surveillance and molecular epidemiology. She has also contributed to translational research on synthetic erythrocytes for pathogen surveillance and serological testing and is co-inventor of a patent for reagents and rapid methods for pathogen characterisation and serology testing. In addition to her research activity, she has provided supervision for master’s students working on molecular surveillance and genomic characterisation of enteroviruses, influenza viruses, rhinoviruses, human parechovirus and coronaviruses.