Beatriz Mothe Pujadas

Born in Lleida in 1977, Beatriz Mothe, MD, PhD, has been employed at IrsiCaixa since 2007. Her PhD, completed under a national competitive post-specialization programme for physicians (ISCIII Rio Hortega CM08/00020 2009-2011) was on the subject of immunological, virological and genetic HIV-control mechanisms that could be incorporated into the rational design of novel therapeutic vaccine candidates (Catalan Award for Best Thesis on Infectious Diseases in 2012).

She has actively participated in pre-clinical testing of a novel HIV T-cell immunogen called HTI, designed to redirect cytotoxic T-cell responses to protective and conserved HIV targets capable of controlling viral replication. Following US research stays at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard (formerly Partners AIDS Research Center) and the National Cancer Institute at Frederick, after taking up a research fellowship position (ISCIII Joan Rodés JR13/00024 2014-2016), she is currently an associated researcher at the Host Genetics and Cellular Immunology group led by Dr. Brander in IrsiCaixa.

She also works in the HIV unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, where she co-directs with Dr José Moltó the research line of Vaccines, Immunotherapies and Pharmacology. As a clinical researcher, she focuses on identifying and monitoring acute/recent HIV infection and HIV controllers as models for a functional cure (principal investigator for the early-cART and controller cohorts). She also coordinates clinical trials and immune monitoring in aspects related to therapeutic vaccines and eradication strategies.

Mothe has been a teacher of the MSc in Zoonoses and One Health (UAB) since 2016 and is currently co-directing with Dr Brander a doctoral thesis on the subject of advanced immunology for the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). She has been an associate professor in the Chair of Infectious Diseases and Immunity at the University of Vic-University of Central Catalonia (UVic-UCC) since 2014.