Zebrabiores

David Polo Montero is a postdoctoral researcher (Maria Zambrano Grant) at the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology at USC and CRETUS (Cross-disciplinary Research Center in Environmental Technologies). He earned his Ph.D degree in 2014 (with the Extraordinary PhD Award) and has since focused his career on studying human and animal pathogenic viruses from an environmental perspective (surveillance, prevalence, persistence, and diversity in aquatic systems). In 2015, he secured a postdoctoral position at IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, France), where his research concentrated on the persistence of human enteric viruses in seawater and oysters, the epidemiology of viral gastroenteritis associated with their consumption, and the use of human intestinal enteroids to assess the environmental persistence of human noroviruses. In 2019, he returned to the GIPA group (Group of Research on Pathology in Aquaculture, within the Department of Microbiology at USC). His primary focus has been on developing an early warning system for COVID-19 using a wastewater-based epidemiology approach. Furthermore, he conducted research stays at several institutions, including CIEMAT-CSIC (Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research, Almería), where he delved into photocatalysis, and solar disinfection (SODIS) applied to viruses. He also spent time at the INSTITUTE PASTEUR (Paris) to further explore cell culture techniques and infectivity assays with poliovirus, at IATA-CSIC (Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology, Valencia) to expand his knowledge of new generation sequencing technologies, and at ROSLIN INSTITUTE (University of Edinburgh) with a focus on the study of genetic modification techniques (CRISPR/Cas) and their application in aquaculture and virology. Presently, in collaboration with Prof. Laura Sánchez and ZEBRABIORES, he is developing a new research line to enhance the potential of the zebrafish as an integrative and optically accessible model system for studying, discovering, and monitoring pathogenic viruses and virus-host interactions in aquatic environments from a one health perspective. David Polo's research aligns with the main objectives and strategies of the EU concerning the emergence of pathogenic viruses, climate change, aquatic system contamination, water and energy scarcity, and food safety.