Unai Perez Sautu

Unai holds a PhD in Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology (University of Barcelona, 2011). During his PhD project he studied outbreaks of hepatitis A virus through genetic sequencing to elucidate infection sources and transmission chains and developed a virus concentration system to quantify caliciviruses in water samples from the Llobregat river. After the PhD he held a postdoctoral position (2013 to 2016) as a Sara Borrell fellow in the National Center for Microbiology in Madrid (Carlos III Health Institute). He joined the Laboratory of Influenza and respiratory viruses where he developed and implemented Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) procedures for the characterization of the respiratory virome, whole-genome sequencing of viruses, and pathogen discovery. After completing the Sara Borrell program, he joined the Pathogen Discovery team in the Genomics Unit of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID at Fort Detrick) in Frederick (Maryland, USA) as a Postdoctoral Scientist. There, he acquired hands-on experience with the sequencers from Illumina and Oxford Nanopore (MiSeq, NextSeq and MinION), implemented several protocols to analyze human clinical samples and tick specimens with NGS technologies, and developed his skills for NGS data analysis. He conducted research projects focused on the use of NGS for the study of human infections with unexplained etiology, and for the genomic characterization of viruses responsible of public health alerts and outbreaks (i.e. Crimean Congo, Hantavirus); collaborated with public health authorities in the response to those and in the establishment of control measures; and organized training activities with international collaborators where he traveled to provide on-site training in NGS techniques and advice on how to implement them. He has presented his work in many different international conferences (posters and oral presentations) and has published several peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals.