Diego Fontana

Diego
Fontana

Universidad Nacional del Litoral
Biography

Graduated as a bachelor in Biotechnology and PhD in Biological Sciences, actually I am an Asistant Resarcher of the National Cientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). I perform my research in the Biotechnological Development Laboratory of the Biochemistry and Biological Sciences School of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL) in Santa Fe, Argentina. 

During my PhD thesis I developed a new generation veterinary vaccine for rabies, based on virus-like particles. The protective immunogenicity of this recombinant vaccine was confirmed in dogs, cats and cattle, and currently is under revision for the final approval of the National Service of Agri-Food Health and Quality (SENASA) in Argentina, for its transference into the market.

At the moment I am working in the design, characterization and production of chimeric VLPs as a biotechnological platform for the development of recombinant vaccines for animal health.

 

Research interests

My main field of research is animal cell culture in bioreactors and bioprocess design, in particular applied to the development of new generation vaccine candidates for human and veterinary use.