Vidéo

Pablo Gago Ferrero

I am Ramon y Cajal researcher and the leader of a research team (the Expo-Hum group). My research strives for increased knowledge about the chemical exposome and on the development of methods to measure it (exposomics). I have extensive experience on the application of HRMS for a better understanding of the current environmental and health challenges related to chemicals. My main goal is to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the universe of chemicals that accumulate in humans and link it to human health. I am topic editor on the exposome in Environmental Science & Technology

Selected publications

• Gil-Solsona, R., Nika, M., Bustamante, M., Villanueva, C., Foraster, M., Alygizakis, N., Gomez-Roig, M.D., Llurba-Olive, E., Sunyer, J., Thomaidis, N., Dadvand, P., Gago-Ferrero P*. (2021) The potential of sewage sludge to predict and evaluate the human’s chemical exposome. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. 8, 12, 1077–1084.
• Menger, F., Boström, G., Jonsson, O., Ahrens, L., Wiberg, K., Kreuger, J., Gago-Ferrero P*., (2021) Identification of pesticide transformation products in surface water using suspect screening combined with national monitoring data. Environmental Science & Technology. 55, 10343−10353.
• Gago-Ferrero, P*., Bletsou, A.A., Damalas, D.E., Aalizadeh, R., Alygizakis, N.A., Singer, H.P., Hollender, J., Thomaidis, N.S., (2020) Wide-scope target screening of >2000 emerging contaminants in wastewater samples with UPLC-Q-ToF-HRMS/MS and smart evaluation of its performance through the validation of 195 selected representative. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 387, 121712. Editor-Selected Outstanding Paper for 2020.
• Gago-Ferrero, P*., Krettek, A., Fischer, S., Wiberg K., Ahrens, L., (2018) Suspect screening and regulatory databases: A powerful combination to identify Emerging Micropollutants. Environmental Science & Technology. 52:6881-6894.
• Gago-Ferrero, P*., Schymanski, E.L., Bletsou, A.A., Aalizadeh, R., Hollender, J., Thomaidis, N.A., (2015) Extended suspect and non-target strategies to characterize emerging polar organic contaminants in raw wastewater with LC-HRMS/MS. Environmental Science & Technology. 49(20):12333-12341.

Selected awards

2022. Emerging Scientific Talent Award in recognition of the scientific career and the capacity for emerging scientific leadership in the area of Chemistry (Catalan Chemical Society).
2023. American Chemical Society James J. Morgan Early career Award mention
2024. Award for Scientific Research into Urban Challenges in the City of Barcelona

The Expo-Hum group

Chemicals are part of our daily lives, and we are exposed to multiple chemicals through multiple pathways. Significant questions and huge gaps remain about their adverse human health impacts and societal costs. Relevant scientific evidence contributing to regulation of hazardous chemicals requires a holistic approach to assess simultaneous exposure to multiple compounds.
We use the last advances in analytical chemistry (advanced HRMS-based approaches) to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the universe of chemicals that accumulate (or pseudo-accumulate) in humans and their link with the environment. Also, we link the exposure to those compounds with adverse health effects by (I) investigating changes in the metabolic pathways (applying metabolomics) and (II) evaluating adverse health outcomes in collaboration with epidemiologists. We also focus our research on the development of early warning systems for the detection of chemicals that may pose a threat to human health to prevent possible threats.