Josep Vicent Mercader Badia

 Josep Vicent Mercader Badía
Dr. Josep V. Mercader-Badia obtained his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Valencia in 1998 with the thesis entitled “Development of monoclonal antibody-based immunoassays for the determination of the insecticide azinphos-methyl in environmental waters and in fruit juices”. Subsequently, he carried out a two-year postdoctoral stage at the Technical University of Munich through a Marie Curie Personal Research Grant, with the aim of generating recombinant molecular receptors specific of small organic chemicals. Afterwards, he was engaged with private research during several years; first, in Lyon, at the company BioMérieux where he studied innovative analytical strategies applied to the microbiological safety of food, and then, in Barcelona, at the Food Diagnostics division of UCB Pharma where he developed commercial tests for the detection of veterinary drugs in milk. In 2006, he joined the Food Analytical Immunotechnology, at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC), with an I3P postdoctoral contract, and in 2009, he was awarded a contract within the Ramón y Cajal program in the same research institute. Since 2014, he holds a permanent position as CSIC Senior Scientist in IATA. His studies are focused on practical and basic research topics concerning the generation of high-quality functionalized haptens, conjugates, and bioreceptors of chemical residues and contaminants which are potentially present in food. The final aim of his research projects is the development and validation of novel rapid, economic and user-friendly bioanalytical methods for the determination of chemical xenobiotics (pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, additives, mycotoxins, phycotoxins, phytotoxins, etc.) in foodstuffs.