The seminar of July was given by the PhD Candidate Pablo Espada (Xunta de Galicia Research Fellow), graduated in Biotechnology at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with a Master's degree in Microbiology by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He is currently conducting a PhD thesis focused on understanding the fate and behaviour of antibiotic resistance genes in manure and sludge management chains within the NUTRITIVE project (Horizon Europe). 

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the major global public health challenges, driven by the proliferation of resistant bacteria and resistance genes that accumulate in high-selection-pressure environments, such as livestock manure. In this context, manure treatment through anaerobic digestion is considered a promising strategy to reduce these resistance genes before agricultural application.

His work focuses on the fate of multiple antimicrobial resistance genes and mobile genetic elements during the anaerobic digestion of cattle manure. It evaluates how operational conditions, particularly temperature and organic loading rate, influence their removal, with the aim of identifying the most effective conditions to minimize the presence of these genes.