This December, Pilar Domingo-Calap joins has joined the I2SysBio Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (University of València-CSIC joint center) as Ramón y Cajal Researcher and group leader.

Pilar Domingo-Calap is a biologist interested in the biomedical implications of viruses. She has a degree in Biology and a Master's Degree in Biodiversity from the University of Valencia (UV). During his PhD (UV, 2012), he investigated the effects of mutations in phages and their influence on their evolution. His doctoral training was expanded with two stays at the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (CNRS, France), where he studied the mutation rate of HIV-1 co-financed by an ERC Starting Grant project led by Rafael Sanjuán. While his PhD focused primarily on fundamental research topics, during his postdoc his interest in biomedicine grew. In 2013, he joined a Laboratory of Excellence of the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) at the Center de Recherche d'Immunologie et Hématologie (University of Strasbourg). Under the supervision of Seiamak Bahram, he initiated a new line of research aimed at characterizing BK polyomavirus genetic diversity and immune escape in transplant recipients, using next-generation sequencing and epitope analysis. During this period, he also established several collaborations with physicians and clinical virologists to study the genetics and immunity of polyomaviruses. In 2016, she joined I2SysBio with a 'Juan de la Cierva Incorporación' contract under the supervision of Sanjuán, expanding her work on viral pathogenesis and immunity.

Domingo-Calap now joins the I2SysBio scientific faculty as a Ramón y Cajal researcher with her own group, the 'Laboratory of Environmental and Biomedical Viruses'. His main line of research, sampling viruses from the environment for use in biomedicine, promotes phages as a promising treatment alternative against multidrug-resistant bacteria, allowing him to combine his experience in phage biology and biomedicine. Phages are ubiquitous in the environment and immensely diverse, making phage discovery a powerful source of new therapies against pathogenic bacteria. She has recently been awarded an ESCMID 2020 research project to continue her research in phage therapy to combat Klebsiella pneumoniae, one of the high-risk infectious diseases due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. He is a member of the Spanish Phage Network (FAGOMA), the American Society of Microbiology, the Spanish Society of Virology and the ESCMID. In addition, it has signed transfer agreements and established collaborations with national hospitals, which will allow it to directly explore phage therapy in the clinical setting, mainly with compassionate use. Recently, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led her to carry out epidemiological surveillance studies of the virus through wastewater and to study a possible route of indirect transmission through the environment, being the Principal Investigator of a FONDO-COVID19 (ISCIII) project and of several transfer contracts with private companies. Finally, it is worth mentioning his teaching activities, mainly in Genetics, Evolution, Virology and Phage Therapy at the UV, the Complutense University of Madrid, the Howest International University, the Franche-Comté University and the University of Strasbourg.

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