Aleix Elizalde-Torrent graduated in Medicine in 2006. He did the residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital Universitari de la Vall d’Hebron, with a special training in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine. His interest for international health led him to achieve the “Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene” of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. After the residency, he joined the research group of Dr. Hernando del Portillo at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal/CRESIB) as a PhD student. Fundamentally, his research was focused on understanding the role of the spleen and bone marrow in Plasmodium vivax malaria, with special attention to anemia and splenomegaly in this context. He performed part of this project in Manaus, Brazil. Aleix Elizalde-Torrent obtained the International PhD in Medicine and Translational Research by the Universitat de Barcelona. He joined IrsiCaixa’s Microbial Genomics group as a post-doc. His research focuses on the influence of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of HIV infection and chronic inflammation, and its underlying biological mechanisms. His role in the MISTRAL project consists in carrying out the experiments in a mouse model in order to evaluate the impact of the gut microbiota on the cellular immune response to vaccination, and to assess the effects of vaccination on the gut microbiota composition.