Maria Nevot Banús

PhD in Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona. Since 2007, her scientific career has focused on the study of RNA viruses, specifically HIV, HCV, and since 2020, SARS-CoV-2. As a postdoctoral researcher at IrsiCaixa, she has been involved in studies on inhibiting HIV replication using RNA interference to explore the virus's evolutionary capacity and escape mechanisms (Nevot et al., 2011). She has also participated in studies with HIV/HCV coinfected patients, particularly in cases of acute hepatitis in HIV-positive patients, which have been increasingly observed in recent years (Nevot et al., 2014). Until 2020, her work focused on studying the effect of synonymous mutations on the replicative and evolutionary capacity of HIV-1 (Martrus et al., 2013; Martinez et al., 2016; Nevot et al., 2018).

Since 2020, she has focused on studying the post COVID-19 condition with the aim of investigating the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms causing this disease, particularly focusing on the role of Natural Killer (NK) cells. NK cells are part of the innate immune system and play a significant role in various physiological processes, such as controlling infectious diseases and cancer. Currently, her research is focused on the role of NK cells in persistent viral infections and different types of cancer.