About
Our group is part of the Department of Genetics, Physiology and Microbiology of the Complutense University of Madrid and has been dedicated to the study of mycotoxins and toxigenic fungi for more than 20 years. Mycotoxins are fungal secondary metabolites whose presence in food poses a serious risk to food safety. Chronic exposure to mycotoxins can lead to pathologies including tumour development. Considering their importance, our research group is focused on the study of the main mycotoxins including aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, fumonisins and trichothecenes.
The group has published a large number of papers covering both genetic and biological aspects of toxigenic fungi, but our main contribution is related to the development of molecular techniques for the early detection of the main mycotoxin-producing fungi of the genera Aspergillus and Fusarium. Early and rapid detection of the most relevant species directly in food matrices is essential to be able to establish effective control measures to prevent their development in food matrices and, therefore, the presence of mycotoxins in these products. In addition, the development of these rapid molecular detection techniques has allowed us to carry out incidence studies of the main toxigenic species and thus study their distribution in food products that had not been explored until now. For example, in recent years, we have found that the presence of these fungi in cereal fields and vineyards with organic farming practices is similar to those with conventional management.