Laia Fernández
Doctoral Researcher
lfernan1(ELIMINAR)@clinic.ub.es
Degree in Biology from the University of Barcelona (UB). She specialized in scientific journalism via a Master’s in Science Communication from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). She is preparing her doctoral thesis in Medical Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine, UB, on the pig animal model line. She also provides support for the management of 16 national and 3 European research projects (GRACE, MOSAR and Theraedge).
The objective of the first phase of her doctoral thesis, the Diploma in Advanced Studies (DEA), is to analyze the formation of biofilm in endotracheal tubes in pigs with ventilation-associated pneumonia (VAP). To this end, she compares the biofilm extracted from tubes in pigs treated with antibiotics (vancomycin or linezolid) with that from the control group, which receives no antibiotic treatment for the disease. Describing the differences between the biofilm of these experimental groups will help to determine whether some antibiotics are useful in combating the biofilm responsible for persistent infections that affect intubated patients.
At the same time, she takes part in the management of the projects of the group coordinated by Prof. Antoni Torres, specifically those of group 14 of the Network of Centers for Biomedical Research on Respiratory Diseases (CibeRes), supervises the follow-up of the other research projects, manages human resources for the group, provides the group with logistics support, and also carries out the role of webmaster.
she analyzes the formation of biofilm in endotracheal tubes in a model using pigs with ventilation-associated pneumonia due to multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus