UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY (UPV-EHU)

Period of enjoyment: from January 2025 to June 2026.

 

The Candidiasis and Other Infectious Diseases Associated with Biofilms (CanBIO) Group has a multidisciplinary and transversal character, with professors and researchers from the academic and clinical areas of the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). The main objective of the group is to increase knowledge of candidiasis and other infectious diseases associated with the production of biofilms and whose pathogenesis is favoured by alterations in the microbiota or dysbiosis. These diseases include infections caused by antimicrobial drug-resistant pathogens such as Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter or Pseudomonas, or Candida species such as C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis or C. auris, which is considered an international emergency due to its multidrug resistance and persistent hospital outbreaks.

The group has a close relationship with several research groups at the UPV/EHU, with other research centres in the Basque Country, and with research teams in European and American countries, with whom it participates in multicentre studies and research networks that favour the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of information, allowing us to host students and researchers from other institutions.

 

Research proposals should be related to the following areas:

• Epidemiology, pathogenesis and diagnosis of candidiasis and other biofilm-associated infectious diseases: to study the epidemiology and pathogenesis of infectious diseases, to develop methods to study biofilms on different biomaterials, and to develop molecular methods for diagnosis and identification and epidemiological typing.
• In vivo models for the study of pathogenicity and antimicrobial susceptibility of Candida and other biofilm-forming pathogens: Aiming at the evaluation and use of alternative experimental models of infection in Galleria mellonella and Caenorhabditis elegans, the evaluation of antimicrobial drug efficacy and the search for therapeutic alternatives.
• Antimicrobial resistance of biofilm-producing pathogenic microorganisms: The aim is to study in vitro antimicrobial resistance and the molecular mechanisms involved in order to optimise treatment.

 

To obtain approval of the proposal, please send an email to elena.eraso@ehu.eus

 

Location: Barrio Sarriena S/N, 48940 Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain.

Website: https://www.ehu.eus/canbio; https://ekoizpen-zientifikoa.ehu.eus/grupos/10326/detalle?lang=en;

 

*The UPV-EHU does not provide nor has any requirements regarding accommodation. It is the fellow’s responsibility to secure it and inform both parties, at least, 1 month before arrival in Spain.