Javier Pascual

Background

About Javier Pascual

I hold a Bachelor's and a PhD in Biological Sciences, both of which I obtained from the Universitat de València. I am currently Chief Scientific Officer at Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence SL, a biotechnology company based in Valencia, Spain. I am also a professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Universidad Europea de Valencia. I have held various positions at both national and international research centres, including the Leibniz Institute-DSMZ (German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures), the Spanish Type Culture Collection (CECT), the Fundación MEDINA (Centro de Excelencia en Investigación de Medicamentos Innovadores en Andalucía), the Cavanilles Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity-UV, the Zaidín Experimental Station-CSIC, the University of Santiago de Compostela, and the ICB – Istituto di Chimica Biomolecolare - CNR in Italy. My main lines of research focus on:(i) the bioprospecting of microorganisms with biotechnological potential and their functional improvement through adaptive laboratory evolution;(ii) the development of bioremediation processes based on microbial the functional characterisation of microbial communities through the integration of omics techniques; and (iv) the taxonomic and evolutionary study of microorganisms. I have authored over sixty scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to 17 book chapters. My work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Best Oral Communication prize at the XXI National Congress of the Spanish Society of Microbiology (SEM), Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Biodiversity Section in 2007, and the Best Paper by a Young Scientist award at the V Conference of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) in 2013. I serve as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals and as an associate editor for Frontiers in Microbiology.