Rafael Giraldo, researcher in the Microbial Biotechnology Department at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC) has been elected the new President-elect of the Spanish Society of Microbiology (SEM). The result of the voting was announced last Friday at a meeting of the Executive Board of the Society. According to the Society's Bylaws, he will remain as Vice-President for the next two years, collaborating with the current President, Antonio Ventosa (University of Seville).
Giraldo, who joined the CNB at the end of 2018, has spent most of his career at the CSIC's Center for Biological Research (CIB) studying through interdisciplinary approaches the interactions between proteins and DNA, particularly in plasmid replication, using yeast and bacteria as models. His most recent research focuses in the formation of protein amyloid aggregates in E. coli, the molecular mechanisms that determine the shift between functional and cytotoxic amyloids, and their applications as possible synthetic resources of use in biotechnology and biomedicine. He was elected member of the Academia Europaea (Cell and Developmental Biology section) in 2010, and has been Vice-President of the CSIC Ethics Committee between 2018-2020.
The Spanish Society of Microbiology
SEM was founded in 1946 at the CSIC headquarters, an institution with which it maintains a close relationship, as recognised with the SEM Honour Award to the CIB-CSIC in 2009. This year, the Society celebrates its 75th Anniversary with a series of commemorative events in schedule.
The main objectives of the society are to promote research in Microbiology, to encourage international relations and to bring together the many professionals who work in all its various fields, and to foster the knowledge of Microbiology in society as a whole. It is an interdisciplinary society with more than 1,700 members who work in the many different areas of both basic and applied Microbiology.
