Dr. Claudio Miranda

Dr. Claudio D. Miranda, Full Professor of the Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile, Director of the PhD in Aquaculture Program. His research has focused on the comprehensive understanding of antimicrobial resistance among aquatic bacteria as a consequence of the intensive use of antibiotics in Chilean fish and shellfish aquaculture. He obtained his MSc in Microbiology in Universidad de Chile in 1993, and his PhD in Biological Sciences in Universidad de Concepción, Chile in 2002. To accomplish these aims, various studies have been performed using culturable and metagenomic approaches to characterize the antibiotic resistant microbiota, as well as to detect the antimicrobial resistance mechanism and genes encoding for their resistance in the freshwater and marine systems associated with aquatic farming. Furthermore, some main elements involved in the bacterial mobilome, including plasmids and integrons, have been studied in isolated bacteria, as well as their ability to be horizontally transferred. Thus, genetic determinants encoding for resistance to quinolones, phenicols, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, among others, have been profusely investigated.