Department: Department of Microbiology and Parasitology

Faculty: Faculty of Veterinary Science

Institute: Aquatic Environment Research Institute for Global Health (iARCUS)

Strategic R&D&I cluster: Agrupación Estratégica en Gestión y Producción sostenible de Biorrecursos (BioReDes)

Area: Microbiology

Research group: Escherichia coli Reference Laboratory (LREC)

Email: azucena.mora@usc.es

Doctor by the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela with the thesis Escherichia coli verotoxigénicos (ECVT) O157-H7 y no O157 Prevalencia, serotipos, fagotipos, genes de virulencia, tipos de intiminas, perfiles de PFGE y resistencias a antibióticos de ECVT de origen humano y animal 2002. Supervised by Dr. Jorge Blanco Álvarez, Dr. Miguel Blanco Álvarez.

Doctor of Philosophy in Veterinary Medicine, recipient of the USC Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Prize and the SYVA Award for Best Thesis in Animal Health (2002). From 2007 to 2012, she was a researcher in Spain's prestigious Ramón y Cajal National Programme. Currently, she is a Full Professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Lugo and serves as the Scientific Director of the Centre for Biomedicine and Veterinary Research (CEBIOVET). She is an elected Corresponding Member of the Galician Academy of Veterinary Sciences in the field of animal health. She is a member of the Reference Laboratory for E. coli (LREC), part of the EU-NRL for VTEC in Food, and the Instituto de Investigación do Medio Acuático para unha Saúde Global (iARCUS). Since 2023, she has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) and a collaborator in the National Antibiotic Resistance Plan of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS). Additionally, she serves as Education Officer of the ESCMID Food- and Water-borne Infections Study Group (EFWISG) for the 2024-2026 term. With over 25 years of experience in human and animal pathogenic E. coli, she has led eight national and regional projects as principal investigator, supervised numerous doctoral theses, and authored more than 100 scientific publications (H-index = 49; WOS). One of her publications was recognized with the PRAN II Ed. 2018 Prize. Her research focuses on antibiotic resistance through a 'One Health' approach; her current research line, “Integrated Monitoring of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Flow and Intervention Targets ‘from Environment to Farm to Table,” has received the 2024 PRAN Award in the category of “Best Initiative in Antibiotic Resistance Research.” Dr. Mora also heads the Diagnostic and Advisory Service for microbiological techniques related to the genotyping of pathogenic E. coli strains.