Patricio Retamal was born in Aysén, Chile. He graduated as a veterinarian (1992-1998), with a MSc (1999-2002) from University of Chile, majoring in animal pathology. Then, he received his doctorate at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, majoring in Molecular Biology and Microbiology (2003-2009); 89). He has worked at Universidad de Chile for 20 years, in the Infectious Diseases unit. Currently, he is an associate professor there, working on the characterization of zoonotic pathogens, with special attention to Salmonella enterica and Mycobacterium bovis.