The Barcelona Debates on the Human Microbiome 2023

Dr. Clotet received his MD (1976) and his PhD (1981), with a thesis on autoimmune diseases, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). That same year, his internship as an Internal Medicine specialist at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona coincided with the first AIDS case reported in Spain. This case was the catalyst for a career dedicated to this serious disease, first as head of the HIV Unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital in Badalona (1987-2015) and then as founder and president of the Fight against AIDS Foundation (1992), which is now named as Fight Infections Foundation.

Dr. Clotet soon saw the need to go a step beyond patient care to conduct research aimed at eradicating AIDS. In 1995, with the support of “la Caixa” and the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, he founded the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, which he still heads.  In addition, Dr. Clotet is also the clinical director of Infectious Diseases at the Metropolitana Nord area of the Catalan Institute of Health, scientific advisor to two IrsiCaixa spin-offs: Aelix Therapeutics SL and AlbaJuna Therapeutics SL and director of the Chair of AIDS and Related Diseases at the Universitat de Vic (UVic).

He has published more than 1000 papers in high impact international journals and his contributions to research have been recognized with the Josep Trueta medal to Sanitary Merit and the ‘Premi Nacional de Recerca’, among other awards.

Roger Paredes, MD, PhD, is the Head of the Infectious Diseases Service at Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Head of the Microbial Genomics Group at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, Badalona, Spain.

Roger Paredes obtained an MD, PhD degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He specialised in HIV resistance at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. His team has demonstrated the clinical utility of HIV-1 deep sequencing in both high- and low-income countries.

Senior Researcher at the Digestive System Unit, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute. International Human Microbiome Consortium Steering Committee Member. President of the Probiotics and Prebiotics Spanish Society Board. World Gastroenterology Organization