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Dr. Marcelo Cortez

Charge: 
Biology Department. Molecular virology and pathogen control laboratory
E-mail: 
marcelo.cortez@usach.cl

 

TEM electron micrograph of a salmon cell section  infected with recombinant Infectious Salmon  Anemia Virus (rISAV). The budding of recombinant  virions of the ISAV_ 901 strain is observed on the  cell surface. Bar: 2μm

Biography: 

He obtained his degree in Biochemistry at the  Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH) in 2002  and the degree of Doctor in Biochemistry and  Molecular Biology in 2006 from the University of  Santiago de Compostela, Spain. During his undergraduate and doctoral thesis, he  studied the molecular biology of the IPN virus and  Avian Reovirus, that are of great importance in  aquaculture and poultry farming, respectively. In  2006, he returned to Chile after winning a contest  for the advanced capital insertion program for  Industry (PBCT-Conicyt) associated with  Diagnotec S.A. and working together in the  development of vaccines in Centrovet Ltda., as  head of the Avian Research and Development  Area at first and Swine later, developing lines of  research for vaccines against Salmonella  enteritidis, Porcine Circovirus type 2 (PCV2), Parvovirus Porcine (PPV), Lawsonia intracellularis and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, in addition to  the search for natural products with antibiotic and  antiviral activity in the consortium financed by  CORFO, Bioanimal corp At the end of 2008, he joined USACH through a  PBCT-Conicyt project, serving as Associate  Researcher in the Virology Laboratory of the  Faculty of Chemistry and Biology. In 2015, he  formed the Molecular Virology and Pathogen  Control Laboratory of the Department of Biology  of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology.

Research Area: 

Since its incorporation and to date, he has been in  charge of implementing the research area based  on molecular studies, the search for antivirals and  the development of vaccines for the Infectious  Salmon Anemia virus (ISAV), the Infectious  Pancreatic Necrosis virus (IPNV), as well as Porcine  Circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and currently Piscine  Reovirus (PRV). With theses directed, both from  the Doctorate in Biotechnology, Doctorate in  Microbiology, Doctorate in Aquaculture as well as  the Biochemistry degree from USACH and  Veterinary Medicine from UDLA or UNICYT, Biology  from UNAB, Dr. Cortez is currently a Researcher in  charge of an INACH project and technical  assistance projects with related companies. He was  responsible to different degrees for different  projects related to Virology, Immunology,  Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Animal Vaccines  and Antivirals, all with funding sources such as  CORFO, FIA, Fondecyt, FONDEF, CONICYT,  INACH, ANID-Detection of Sars-Cov- 2 etc. He is  the author of various works in the area of molecular  biology of animal viruses and pathogenic bacteria  of importance in aquaculture and animal  production, having successfully participated in  several projects related to these topics.

 
Projects: 

  • 2020-2021 Support for the molecular diagnosis of Covid19 in  the Usach Molecular Virology Laboratory. Covid  ANID diagnostic emergency fund. FICOV20072.  Director

  • 2020-2021 Genomic characterization of Aquatic Birnaviruses  detected in Antarctic fish of the genus Notothenia:  Searching for the key for the adaptation of fish viruses to temperatures close to freezing. INACH  RG 16_19. Director

  • 2019-2020 Development of a Vaccine Prototype for the  control of Piscine Reovirus (PRV) in Salmonids.  CORFO 18ITE1-102979. Researcher

  • 2016-2019 Studies on the genetic basis of Infectious Salmon  Anemia virus virulence: understanding virulence  switching in piscine orthomyxovirus. Fondecyt  Regular Nº1161006. Fondecyt-CONICYT.  Researcher in charge (Director).

  • 2016-2018 Study of the antibacterial properties of prenylated  flavonoids and C2-alkylated chromones in  multiresistant strains: enhancement of their  activity through synergism. Dicyt-USACH No.  021601VM, Co-Researcher.

  • 2014-2016 Platform for the generation and production of  recombinant ISAV using a reverse genetics  system: Service to produce Viral antigen. VIU FONDEF Nº 140025. Professor advicer.

  • 2014-2015  Study of polymerase subunits of Infectious  Salmon Anemia Virus as virulence factor:  molecular bases for development of  an attenuated vaccine or new antivirals. Fulbright  U.S. Student Award to Chile Nº 34142950.  Professor in charge.

  • 2014-2015 INNOVA-CORFO 13CTI-21527. Aquaculture  Health Consortium. Sub-project manager.

  • 2013-2016 Study of viral and bacterial diversity in Antarctic  waters and fish species: search for natural  reservoirs of salmonid pathogens. INACH on field project RT_08-13. Director.

  • 2013 Development of a topical treatment against  malignant melanoma in advanced stages. CORFO  Applied R&D Profile N°13IDL1-18470. Alternate  Director.

  • 2012-2015 Generation and development of an effective  recombinant vaccine against porcine circovirus  Type 2 enhanced with immunoregulatory  cytokines: a biotechnological solution for the  national pig industry. FONDEF D11I1188.  Scientific Director.

  • 2012-2015 Development of a system based on cellular  immunotherapy to improve the immune response  of veterinary vaccines: an opportunity to control  the risk of ISA virus as a reservoir in freshwater  and marine systems. FIA Innovation PYT-2012- 0022. Director

  • 2012-2015 Development of a formulation based on plant  extracts intended to control stress and improve  the survival of salmon during the smoltification  process. FIA Innovation PYT-2012-0023. Co Researcher

  • 2012-2015 Use of antigen-encapsulating nanoparticles as a  platform to produce vaccines in salmonids.  Collaborative research project between research  teams from Chile and Argentina ACE-02,  CONICYT. Co-Researcher

  • 2011-2014 Generation of recombinant Infectious Salmon  Anemia Virus (ISAV) by Reverse Genetic.  Initiation Fondecyt Nº11110212. Fondecyt CONICYT. Researcher in charge.

  • 2011-2013 Development of kits to evaluate the innate and  adaptive immune response of fish in freshwater  ecosystems: an opportunity to reach the market  with effective vaccines. FIA PYT-2011-0047 FIA  Innovation Project. Alternate Chair.

  • 2011-2014 Use of cell bodies expressing viral fusogenic  proteins to induce cross-presentation and  immunostimulation in vivo. A mechanism to  improve antitumoral therapy. Fondecyt Regular  1110734. CONICYT. Co-Researcher.

  • 2009-2011 Isolation and genomic characterization of ISA  virus from different outbreaks of the disease in  national territory and implementation of molecular  diagnostic method. DICYT, Universidad de Santiago. Primary Researcher.

  • 2009-2011 Search for an antiviral treatment against the  Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISAV) based on  the use of natural compounds extracted from  seaweed. PBCT project insertion to the PDA-20  academy. Primary Researcher.

  • 2006-2008 Implementation of new technology to produce  vaccines without risk for the veterinary industry.  PBCT project insertion to the industry IPC57.  Primary Researcher.

  • 2006-2008 Folding, production and assembly of viral protein  complexes for high structure analysis  (FOLPROCOM), BFU2005-24982-E/BMC.  Researcher

 

 

 

Latest Publications: 

  • 2021 Mauricio Osorio *, Marcela Carvajal, Alejandra Vergara, Estefania Butassi, Susana Zacchino, Carolina Mascayano, Margarita Montoya, Sophia Mejías, Marcelo Cortez-San Martín, and Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez * (2021) Prenylated Flavonoids with Potential Antimicrobial Activity: Synthesis, Biological activity and in silico study. (Aceptado) International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Impact Factor 4.556.) 

  • 2020 Cárdenas, Matías; Galleguillos, Claudia; Acevedo, Karina; Ananias, Catarina; Alarcón, Javiera; Michelson, Sofía; Toledo, Jorge; Montoya, Margarita; Meneses, Claudio; Castro-Nallar, Eduardo; Vásquez-Martínez, Yesseny; Cortez-San Martin, Marcelo. (2020) Rapid Sequence Modification in the Highly Polymorphic Region (HPR) of the Hemagglutinin Gene of the Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISAV) Suggests Intra-Segmental Template Switching Recombination. (Publicado) Journal of Fish Diseases. Article ID: JFD13242. DOI:10.1111/jfd.13242

  • 2020 Lautaro Taborga, Ernesto Valdés, César González, Katy Díaz, Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez, Carolina Mascayano, Claudia A. Torrent, Francisco Cabezas, Sophia Mejias, Margarita Montoya Kunsting, Marcelo Cortez, Marcelo A. Muñoz, Pedro Joseph-Nathan, Mauricio Osorio. (2020) Biological properties and absolute configuration of flavanones from Calceolaria thyrsiflora. (aceptado) Frontiers in Pharmacology. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.01125

  • 2020 Flores, Erick; Muñoz-Osses, Michelle; Torrent, Claudia; Vásquez-Martínez, Yesseny; Gómez, Alejandra; Cortez-San Martin, Marcelo; Vega Carvallo, Andrés Igor; Marti, Angel; Godoy, Fernando; Mascayano, Carolina. (2020) Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of ferrocenyl thiazole and thiazolo[5,4d]thiazole catechols as inhibitors of 5-hLOX and as antibacterials against Staphylococcus aureus. Structural relationship and computational studies. (aceptado) Organometallics. Manuscript ID: om-2020-00284s.R1

  • 2020 Emilio Lamazares, Fernando Gutiérrez, Angela Hidalgo, Nicolas A. Gutiérrez, Felipe I. Espinoza, Oliberto Sánchez, Marcelo Cortez-San Martín, Carolina Mascayano, Javier González, José Saavedra, Claudia Altamirano, Manuel Mansur, Álvaro Ruiz,* and Jorge R. Toledo*. A Heterologous Viral Protein Sca
    old for Chimeric Antigen Design: An Example PCV2 Virus Vaccine Candidate. Viruses 2020, 12, 385; doi:10.3390/v12040385. 

  • 2020 Daniela Toro-Ascuy; Alvaro Santibañez; Victor Peña; Carolina Beltran; Luis Cottet; Cristian Molina; Margarita Montoya; Nicolas Sandoval; Yesseny Vasquez-Martinez; Carolina Mascayano and *Marcelo Cortez-San Martin. Development of an Isavirus minigenome system to study the function of the pocket RNA-binding domain of viral nucleoprotein (NP) in salmon cells. Journal of Fish Diseases. 2020 Feb;43(2):197-206. doi: 10.1111/jfd.13122. Epub 2019 Dec 16.

  • 2019 Peter Kämpfer*, Stefanie P. Glaeser, Rute Irgang, Guillermo Fernández-Negrete, Matías Poblete-Morales, Derie Fuentes-Messina, Marcelo Cortez-San Martín, Ruben Avendaño-Herrera. Psychrobacter pygoscelis sp. nov. isolated from the penguin Pygoscelis papua. Aceptado en International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. DOI: 10.1099/ijsem.0.003739

  • 2019 Montesino R*, Gutiérrez N, Camacho F, Farnós O, Andrades S, González A, Acosta J, Cortez-San Martín M, Sánchez O, Ruiz A, Toledo JR*. Multi-antigenic recombinant subunit vaccine against Lawsonia intracellularis: The etiological agent of porcine proliferative enteropathy. Vaccine. 2019 Feb 28;37(10):1340-1349. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.01.029. Epub 2019 Jan 30.

  • 2019 Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez, Claudia Torrent, Giannina Toledo, Francisco Cabezas, Victoria Espinosa, Margarita Montoya, Sophia Mejias, Marcelo Cortez-San Martín, Silvia Sepúlveda-Boza, Carolina Mascayano*. New antibacterial and 5-lipoxygenase activities of synthetic benzyl phenyl ketones: Biological and docking studies. Bioorganic Chemistry. Volume 82, February 2019, Pages 385-392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioorg.2018.10.050

  • 2018 Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez, Mauricio Osorio*, Marcela Raimondi, Claudia Torrent, Diego San Martín, Susana Zacchino, Carolina Mascayano, Marcela Carvajal, Sophia Mejias, Francisco Cabezas, Alejandra Vergara, Elizabeth Sanchez, Margarita Montoya and Marcelo Cortez. Antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Activities of Polioxygenated Chalcones. Aceptado en Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society. DOI: 10.21577/0103-5053.20180177 

  • 2018 Ivonne Lozano*,  Jurij Wacyk,  Claudio Perez,  Jaime Carrasco and Marcelo Cortez-San Martin. Diets enriched in red seaweed (Pyropia columbina and Gracilaria chilensis) cryo concentrates modulate the immune-relevant gene encoding the Mx antiviral protein in salmon (Salmo salar) white blood cells. Aceptado en Journal of Applied Phycology, DOI: 10.1007/s10811-018-1595-y

  • 2018 Dante Miranda, Claudia Jara, Sophia Mejias, Viviana Ahumada, Marcelo Cortez, Jorge Ibañez, Sandra Hirsch, Margarita Montoya*. Deficient mitochondrial biogenesis in IL-2 activated NK cells correlates with impaired PGC1-α upregulation in elderly humans. Experimental Gerontology. DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.05.014.

  • 2017 Jonathan Morales, Carlos Barrera-Avalos, Carlos Castro, Stephanie Castillo, Claudio Barrientos, Claudia Robles-Planells, Ximena Lopez, Ernesto Torres, Margarita Montoya, Marcelo Cortez-San Martín, Denise Riquelme, Alejandro Escobar, Ricardo Fernandez, Monica Imarai, Daniela Sauma, Leonel E Rojo, Elias Leiva-Salcedo, Claudio Acuña-Castillo*. Dead Tumor Cells expressing ISAV fusogenic protein favor antigen cross-priming in vitro. Front. Immunol. - Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy, Submitted on: 02 Jun 2017, DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.01170.

  • 2017 Daniela Toro-Ascuy and Marcelo Cortez-San Martín*. Rescue of Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISAV) from Cloned cDNA. Methods Mol Biol. 2017;1602:239-250. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6964-7_15.

  • 2017 Peter Kämpfer*; Rute Irgang; Mathías Poblete-Morales; Stefanie P. Glaeser; Marcelo Cortez-San Martín; Ruben Avendaño-Herrera. Psychromonas aquatilis sp. nov. isolated from water samples obtained in the Chilean Antarctica”. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 2017 May;67(5):1306-1311

  • 2016 Gonzalo P. Barriga, Dusan Boric-Bargetto, Marcelo Cortez-San Martin, Víctor Neira, Harm van Bakel, Michele Thompsom, Rodrigo Tapia, Daniela Toro-Ascuy, Lucila Moreno, Yesseny Vasquez, Michel Sallaberry, Fernando Torres-Pérez, Daniel González-Acuña, and Rafael A. Medina*. Identification of a North American Lineage H5 avian influenza virus in an Antarctic penguin. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2016 Dec; 22(12): 2221–2223. doi: 10.3201/eid2212.161076

  •  2016 *Ruben Avendaño-Herrera, Rute Irgang, Matías Poblete-Morales, Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez, Claudia Robles, Daniela Toro-Ascuy & *Marcelo Cortez-San Martín. Predominant bacteria associated with black rockcod (Notothenia coriiceps, Richardson 1844) from King George Island, Antarctica. Bulletin of the European Association of Fish Pathologists. 36(6) 2016,246-255.

  • 2016 *Laura González, Claudia Robles, *Marcelo Cortez San Martín. Management issues regarding caligidosis treatment on salmon farms in Chile affected by infection salmon anaemia virus (ISAV), Piscirickettsia salmonis and Neoparamoeba perurans. Ocean & Coastal management. Volume 123, April 2016, Pages 74–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2016.02.002.

  • TEM electron micrograph of a salmon cell section  infected with recombinant Infectious Salmon  Anemia Virus (rISAV). The budding of recombinant  virions of the ISAV_ 901 strain is observed on the  cell surface. Bar: 2μm