Juan Antonio García, research professor at CNB-CSIC received the Senior Virologist Award in recognition of his scientific career. Although during his PhD he worked on bacteriophages, his research has mainly focused on the study of the interactions between plant and pathogen during infections caused by viruses of the Potiviridae family such as Plum pox virus, the antiviral response mediated by RNA silencing, viral and cellular factors that affect pathogenicity and the development of biotechnological tools based on these viruses.
With more than 200 scientific publications, Juan Antonio García is a reference in the field of virology in Spain. He has been editor and a member of the editorial board of scientific journals such as Molecular Plant Pathology, Archives of Virology, Journal of General Virology or Virus Research. In addition, in the 90s he was Deputy Director of the National Center for Biotechnology, director of the Department of Molecular Plant Genetics at CNB between 2012-2016 and member of the Advisory Committee of the International Affairs Vice Presidency at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Urtzi Garaigorta, researcher at CNB-CSIC and part of Xavier Forns´ CIBEREHD group at Clinic hospital in Barcelona received the prize to the Spanish Young Virologist. This award aims to recognize his promising career and scientific contributions in the field of virology. After completing his PhD at the CNB focused on the role of the NS1 protein of the influenza virus, he moved to the Scripps Research Institute in La Joya, California, where his projects were focused in understanding the molecular mechanism underlying Hepatitis C virus escape to the host immune response.
In 2014, he formed his own research group focused on the study of the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Since the end of 2016, he is a Ramón y Cajal researcher in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology of CNB-CSIC where he directs the hepatitis B virus research group, and since 2017 he also belongs to the research group of Dr. Xavier Forns as an external collaborator within the CIBER of Hepatic and Digestive Diseases (CIBEREHD).