Dr. José Manuel Pérez de la Lastra received his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry (BioChem and Mol Biol) from the Autonomous University of Madrid in 1992 and received his Master’s degree in Biotechnology in 1993. He received his PhD from the University of Cordoba in 1996. Dr. Pérez de la Lastra is a scientist at the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology. His research is based on the development of biotechnological applications from the immune system of different organisms. In particular, his work focuses on the study of the innate immune defense of animals that live in pathogenic environments to which they have to be adapted in order to resist the very high microbial load. The aim is to provide innovative solutions to current antimicrobial resistance challenges while reducing the environmental impact of conventional antimicrobials. Dr. Pérez de la Lastra also has extensive experience in the use of peptides to study antigenic epitopes in vaccine development and in the discovery of antimicrobial peptides. Dr. Pérez de la Lastra is the author of more than 100 SCI articles (H index = 31) and several book chapters.