Josep Vicent Mercader Badia

Biography

I obtained my PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology by the University of Valencia 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, I carried out a two-year postdoctoral stage at the Technical University of Munich, thanks to a Marie Curie Research Grant, with the aim of generating recombinant molecular receptors specific of small organic chemicals. Afterwards, I was engaged with private research during several years; first, in Lyon, at the company BioMérieux where I studied innovative analytical strategies applied to the microbiological safety of food, and then, in Barcelona, at the Food Diagnostics division of UCB Pharma where I developed commercial tests for the detection of veterinary drugs in milk

Research Interest

am a member of the Food Analytical Immunotechnology group located at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA), which belongs to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) - the largest public R&D institution in Spain. Our research is focused on practical and basic subjects concerning the generation of high-quality functionalized haptens, conjugates, and bioreceptors of chemical residues and contaminants that are potentially present in food. A relevant collection of derivatives of analytical targets as well as polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies has been raised and is being kept at the IATA. Moreover, novel rapid methods have been developed and validated for the analysis of a significant number of toxic xenobiotics in a wide variety of foodstuffs.