Affiliation

• Parasitology Area, Department of Cellular Biology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Valencia.
• Joint Unit for Research in Endocrinology, Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics, University Hospital and Polytechnic “La Fe”-University of Valencia.

Research Interests

Our current interests deal with the characterization of parasite extracellular vesicles (EVs) in parasite-parasite and parasite-host communications, and the study of their applications in control parasitic and non-parasitic diseases.

Curriculum vitae

Dr. Antonio Marcilla is Full Professor of Parasitology, leading a research group studying the role of extracellular vesicles in the host-parasitic helminthes interplay.

He earned his PhD in Pharmacy (Department of Microbiology-UV) in 1991, working on the characterization of cell wall mannoproteins from the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans as target for specific diagnostic, producing several monoclonals, some of them commercialized. As a postdoctoral fellow in the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA) (1993-1995), he was involved in the characterization of protein-protein interactions in signal transduction originated in cancer cells, mainly in basophils, monocytes and macrophages.

Postdoctoral positions in the Instituto de Investigaciones Citológicas de Valencia (1995-1996), (currently Centro de Investigación “Principe Felipe”), and Universitat de Valencia (1996-1998), working on the molecular biology of candidiasis.

Assistant Professor of Parasitology, Facultat de Farmàcia-UV (1998-2002), and Associated Professor (2002-2016). He earned a Full Professor position in 2016.

Since his appointment at the Parasitology Department in 1998, he has been working in Molecular Parasitology, initially on vectors of the Chagas’ disease (producing molecular tools to distinguish triatomine bugs), and later on with parasitic trematodes, as well as the nematode Strongyloides stercoralis. He has been involved in the analyses and molecular characterization of the host-parasitic helminths interphase, using genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches, in order to identify new and specific targets for their control (biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and/or vaccination).

He started in 2011 his research in extracellular vesicles as a source for those targets. Supervisor of 8 PhD Thesis and more than 20 Master Thesis, he has published more than 80 peer reviewed papers with more than 5500 cites (h index: 34).