In his CV, Carlos described himself as an enthusiastic, friendly and sociable microbiologist who had recently decided to make the leap into bioinformatics and biological data analysis because he had realized the enormous potential of these disciplines for revolutionize the foundations of modern biology and medicine. It’s the best self-description I’ve ever read.
Born in Benaguasil, in Camp de Turia, Carlos obtained a degree in Microbiology and a master’s degree in Bioinformatics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona with excellent grades. In the last year of the degree, he worked with nanoparticles at the Materials Science Institute of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC). The following year, at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick (UK), he led a project to design synthetic bacteriophage viruses to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. He did the bioinformatics master’s internship at the National Center for Genomic Analysis (CNAG-CRG), where he designed and developed several tools for genomic analysis. After completing his curricular training, he worked as a bioinformatician in the prestigious microbiota research group in digestive diseases at the Vall d’Hebron hospital, under the direction of Chaysavanh Manichanh.
Carlos joined our research group at the end of 2019, shortly before the outbreak of the covid pandemic, to carry out his doctoral thesis in relation to the effects of different treatments on the intestinal microbiota in people with HIV. Marc Noguera-Julian and I co-supervised the thesis. Carlos’ work was part of a European project called MISTRAL, in which different European and American research centers work together to understand the role of the microbiota in the risk of becoming infected with HIV, of developing cardiovascular diseases a once the infection has occurred, and to respond to immunotherapies to cure the infection. Carlos’ scientific contributions in this field have been fundamental.
From previous studies by our and other research groups, we knew that HIV infection, when it evolves into a severe impairment of the immune system, alters the gut microbiota and this, we suspected, contributed to a worse prognosis of the disease. What no one knew was whether this alteration, or dysbiosis, could be resolved or not. In two works considered relevant today, Carlos showed that, although some probiotics or symbiotics (mixture of probiotics and fibers) exerted a moderate benefit in intestinal inflammation, the initiation of antiretroviral treatment in people who have a impaired immune system significantly improves intestinal richness and recovers the composition of the microbiota. In addition, in collaboration with the Clínic-IDIBAPS hospital research group, led by Josep Maria Miró, Carlos saw that not all antiretrovirals have the same effect on the microbiota: those that have a better penetration intestinal tissues improve it much more clearly and quickly.
Carlos has left us prematurely. A life too short, a loss too sad. But he wanted to help others, and he did. All the work he did will help many people around the world. In an enthusiastic and friendly way, just as he wanted. Taking care of us all. Working hard, but with a perpetual smile. With a desire to learn and move forward, to make people’s lives better. To overcome all obstacles with a fine sense of humor, sly, always affectionate and kind, full of kindness. All of us who love him must honor his life, which was full of meaning. On behalf of all your colleagues in the microbial genomics research group and all of irsiCaixa, rest in peace, my friend.
