Dr. Aragon is a biologist with extensive experience in bacterial pathogenesis. He completed his doctorate at the University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain) working with Brucella. He later continued his scientific career at three US universities (University of Missouri-Kansas City, Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas), where he worked on different aspects of bacterial pathogenicity. He joined the Animal Health Research Center (CReSA) of the IRTA (Institute for Research and Technology in Food and Agriculture), Barcelona-Spain, in 2003 where he has focused on studying respiratory bacterial infections in pigs . The main focus of Dr. Aragon has for years been the porcine pathogen Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis, including its genomic and functional characterization with the ultimate goal of improving disease control. In recent years he has expanded his research focus to other pathogens, such as Streptococcus suis and to the composition of the nasal microbiota and bacterial interactions in order to achieve control of respiratory diseases with alternatives to antibiotics, such as vaccines and probiotics. . His scientific achievements are published in peer-reviewed international journals in the areas of Microbiology and Veterinary Medicine and are also disseminated to physicians and producers in technical talks. As part of his duties, he also supervises master’s and doctoral students. His research is funded mainly by competitive grants from the Spanish Government, but also from the EU and private industry.
