Edwards Pradenas Saavedra

Edwards Pradenas Saavedra graduated from the University of Concepción (Chile) in 2014 with a degree in Medical Technology (Clinical Bioanalysis, Haematology and Blood Bank specialism), completing a final research project that evaluated two methods for extracting and purifying human genome DNA. From 2015 to 2016 he was in charge of emergencies and quality and was technical director of the SOTEM Clinical Laboratory (Biobio Clinic) in Chile.

Between 2016 and 2017 he completed an MSc in Advanced Immunology at the University of Barcelona-Autonomous University of Barcelona, with a final research project — at IrsiCaixa — on characterizing the humoral response in controllers and non-controllers of HIV-1 infection.

In 2017 he was awarded a grant to fund doctoral studies in Spain by the Chilean government’s Advanced Human Capital Training Programme (National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research; CONICYT). Since 2018 he has been employed as a predoctoral researcher in the IrsiCaixa Cell Virology and Immunology (VIC) group, with Dr Julià Blanco and Dr Jorge Carrillo as his thesis supervisors. His work is focused on characterizing neutralizing antibodies targeting the HIV glycoprotein envelope, with the goal of developing a new vaccine platform.