David Calderon Franco
David Calderon Franco was raised in Barcelona (Spain), where he was educated as a biotechnologist (BSc) in Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and as a bioengineer (MSc) in Ramon Llull University - Institut Quimic de Sarria pursuing his master thesis at Denmark Technical University on a yeast metabolic engineering project.
After a year working in the private sector, he got hired as a PhD student at TU Delft on the Environmental Biotechnology Department. During his PhD, he is involved in a Biotechnology and Safety NWO project: Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes and Engineered DNA from Transgenic Biosystems in Nature (TARGETBIO). This project aims to combine innovative methods of synthetic biology, whole-genome sequencing and environmental biotechnology to achieve of key milestones for the understanding of DNA exchange and resistance transmission between microorganisms as well as the environmental and engineered factors that trigger the exchange mechanisms among others. Furthermore, he is involved in the Horizon 2020 Research Platform on Antibiotic Resistance Spread Through Wastewater Treatment Plants (REPARES), that aims at advancing the European community's know-how on antibiotic resistance across sanitation waterways, which in the future will bring society to closer achieve Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations.