Raquel HURTADO-ORTIZ, chemist-bacteriologist, holds a PhD in Immunology from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico. During her master and doctoral studies (2002-2008), she was professor of histology and microbiology at the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico and she worked analysing the immune response during mycobacterial infections in a murine model during her PhD thesis. During her postdoctoral research (2009-2012) she worked at the Institut Pasteur, in the Mycobacterial Genetics Unit, analysing genes involved in the oxidative stress response during Tuberculosis infection. In 2013 she was appointed scientific project manager at the Biological Resource Centre of Institut Pasteur (CRBIP) in order to manage the European Infrastructure “MIRRI” (Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure) at national and institutional level. During the last 5 years, she has been an active participant in working groups within the MIRRI infrastructure and within the Research Ministry of France regarding ABS issues and the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol. During the last two years she participated in the European cluster of ESFRI infrastructures EMBRIC, she was co-responsible of the Whole Genome Sequencing of bacterial strains housed in the Collection of Institut Pasteur (CIP) and leaded research projects focused on the description of novel bacterial species. Since December 1st 2017 she was appointed as the Head of the National Collection of Cultures of Microorganisms (CNCM).
