Graduate in Biology (2008) and with a Master’s degree in Research and Advances in Microbiology (2009) by the University of Granada. He got the PhD in Microbiology (University of Granada and Zaidín Experimental Station – CSIC) in 2014 with International Doctorate Accreditation due to his stay in the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), located by that time in Walnut Creek (now in Berkeley), California (USA). During the predoctoral stage, his efforts were focused on managing a large volume of high-throughput sequencing (NGS) data to study the oak rhizosphere prokaryotic communities in the protected area of Sierra Nevada, Granada. Thanks to this, it was possible to isolate genus Arthrobacter strains capable of thriving in soils affected by forest fire and with potential features for promoting plant growth (PGPB).

His postdoctoral stage was carried out in France, where he studied wood degrading fungi, focusing his work on enzymes involved in the detoxification of acetonic wood extracts (highly antimicrobial and antifungal substances) released in the lignin degradation process. These activities led to the discovery of a new Glutathione transferase (GST) in Phanerochaete chrysosporium (the white-rot model fungus).

Currently, he is studying the belowground microbial communities (bacterial and fungal) of several cultivars of olive trees (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea). The main purpose of this study is to discover which microorganisms confer tolerance to a/biotic stresses and particularly to Verticillium Wilt (Verticillium dahliae Kleb.) Recently, this allowed him to discover changes in the interactions of the belowground microbial communities through co-occurrence networks analysis after the inoculation of the phytopathogen Verticillium dahliae Kleb. in greenhouse conditions in both the sensitive (Picual) and resistant (Frantoio) cultivars most frequently used in these studies.