Jaime Martínez Urtaza

Qualifications

PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (USC)

Biography

Jaime Martinez-Urtaza is Distinguished Beatriz-Galindo Senior Professor at the Department of Genetics and Microbiology, UAB. His research interests have focused on the evolution of human pathogenic organisms, with a particular interest in the application of genomic tools to improve our understanding of the emergence of new human pathogens. He has been involved in international programmes for the study of human pathogens using massive sequencing data to reconstruct the evolutionary history and routes of spreading for the major groups of pathogenic bacteria at global scale. He has applied latest-generation genomic technologies to the investigation of human pathogens and diseases and developed tools to enable the analysis and visualisation of complex genomic data to be applied in different contexts, from ecology to disease. A central theme in his research fusing different scientific disciplines, such as molecular biology, microbiology, population genetics, oceanography, climate science and epidemiology, to decipher new aspects in the evolution, transmission and dispersal of human pathogens in connection with natural events or human-associated activities. He teaches genomics and bioinformatics on undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the UAB.