Ferran Tarrés-Freixas received his Ph.D. in Advanced Immunology on HIV Vaccines and humoral responses from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2021. He has been a Postdoctoral Researcher at IRTA-CReSA Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal since 2022. From September 2023 to the present, he has served as an Associate Professor at Universitat de Vic—Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC). He is currently working with coronaviruses, avian influenza viruses and organoids as alternative animal models for zoonotic infections.

Bonaventura Clotet received his MD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1976 and his Ph.D. in 1981 for his investigations on surrogate markers for connective tissue diseases. He was the Head of the HIV Unit at the Hospital Germans Trias between 1987 and 2015, then he became the Head of the Infectious Diseases Department. He has also been the Director of the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute since 1995 and the President of the “Lluita contra la SIDA” Foundation (currently named “Fundacio contra les Infections”) since 1992. He has been an Associated Professor of Medicine at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) from 1986 until 2023, and a Full Professor of the Chair of Infectious Diseases & Immunity at the Universitat de Vic (UVIC-UCC) since July 2019. In 2016, he was awarded the ‘Creu de St. Jordi’ by the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya) for being one of the most internationally renowned HIV researchers, and awarded in 2020 with the highest recognition as a research award in Catalonia “Premi Nacional de Recerca de Catalunya”. His team is composed of >250 people working at the clinics and at the lab focusing on HIV, immune system abnormalities and related infectious diseases, cancer, papillomavirus, metagenomics, hepatitis, NASH, aging, coronavirus and long-term COVID. He has created 3 spin-offs, currently active, 2 from IrsiCaixa and 1 from “Fundacio contra les infeccions” named Doole Health SL.

Dr. Jorge Carrillo obtained his degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Córdoba (Spain) in 2000. In 2001 he joined Dr. Verdaguer’s group at the Immunobiology Laboratory for Research and Diagnostic Applications (LIRAD-BST) in Badalona. In 2009, he joined the IrsiCaixa Institute for AIDS Research. In 2015, he was appointed associate researcher in IrsiCaixa, and in May 2020 he was designated as senior principal investigator creating the Immunology Group (IgG) at IrsiCaixa. In addition, he is working as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) in AlbaJuna Therapeutic, an IrsiCaixa’s spin-off focused on the development of broadly neutralizing proteins against HIV-1 to be used in cure strategies. His skills and expertise mainly include HIV, Virus, Immunology of Infectious Diseases, Viral Immunology, Vaccination, Immunization, Innate Immunity, Antibodies, Adaptive Immunity, and Immunity.

Julià Blanco (Ph.D. in Biochemistry, University of Barcelona (UB), 1994) leads the Cell Virology and Immunology (VIC) group at IrsiCaixa. He has extensively studied the role of the HIV envelope glycoprotein (Env) in virus-cell or cell-to-cell interactions and HIV cytopathicity in a translational environment. In vivo, he has explored the mechanisms involved in CD4 T-cell depletion, analyzing the contribution of virological and immunological factors that modulate CD4 and B-cell survival. In parallel, his team has developed experimental models for the analysis of cell-to-cell HIV transmission and Env-induced cell death. Knowledge generated regarding the Env function has also proved useful in analyzing anti-Env drug and anti-Env antibody mechanisms of action and in contributing to a better understanding of antibody protection from HIV acquisition and spread. He is a co-founder of AlbaJuna Therapeutics SL, an IrsiCaixa spin-off whose main activity is the development of synthetic antibodies against HIV, and an Associate Professor at the Chair of Infectious Diseases and Immunity of UVIC-UCC.