PostCROI 2017: Update 24 th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

Dr. Clotet received his MD (1976) and his PhD (1981), with a thesis on autoimmune diseases, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). That same year, his internship as an Internal Medicine specialist at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona coincided with the first AIDS case reported in Spain. This case was the catalyst for a career dedicated to this serious disease, first as head of the HIV Unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital in Badalona (1987-2015) and then as founder and president of the Fight against AIDS Foundation (1992), which is now named as Fight Infections Foundation.

Dr. Clotet soon saw the need to go a step beyond patient care to conduct research aimed at eradicating AIDS. In 1995, with the support of “la Caixa” and the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, he founded the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, which he still heads.  In addition, Dr. Clotet is also the clinical director of Infectious Diseases at the Metropolitana Nord area of the Catalan Institute of Health, scientific advisor to two IrsiCaixa spin-offs: Aelix Therapeutics SL and AlbaJuna Therapeutics SL and director of the Chair of AIDS and Related Diseases at the Universitat de Vic (UVic).

He has published more than 1000 papers in high impact international journals and his contributions to research have been recognized with the Josep Trueta medal to Sanitary Merit and the ‘Premi Nacional de Recerca’, among other awards.

After finishing his medical residency in internal medicine at the Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, he started visiting HIV-infected patients in the early years of the epidemic, in the mid 80s. Therefore, he lived the different stages of the history of AIDS when it was a fatal disease and patients died every day until today that HIV has become a chronic disease with prolonged survival and excellent quality of life of patients receiving antiretroviral therapy. He is currently the head of the HIV and STI Unit within the Infectious Diseases Service at the Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, with his professional performance he has been able to contribute to clinical research, participating and organizing clinical trials related to opportunistic infections, HIV complications and antiretroviral therapy. He is co-author of more than 250 scientific articles published in national and international journals such as New Engl J Med, Lancet, Ann Intern Med, Infect Dis Clin, J Infect Dis i JAIDS among others. He has also participated in expert panels for guidelines for the management of opportunistic infections (NIH/CDC/IDSA) and antiretroviral therapy, opportunistic infections and neurocognitive disorders (GESIDA). He is also a reviewer for several international journals.