Diego has always been interested in microbiology and biotechnology, prompting him to pursue a Bachelor´s degree in Biology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), followed by a 2-year Master´s degree at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas and Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo also in Spain. In 2018 he moved to the Netherlands to complete a PhD in the Molecular Genetics department at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. There, he studied the interplay between metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and human gut microbiota. Particularly, he was involved in the discovery of novel antimicrobial peptides with targeted activity against MASLD bacterial drivers, as well as in the identification of bacterial strains able to diminish gut permeability, gut inflammation and liver fat accumulation.

Currently he is enrolled at SymbioMatch as a Molecular Microbiologist where he will transfer his knowledge in gut microbiota to plant microbiota, in order to identify soil bacteria useful as novel biofertilisers to improve crop production.