Dr. Leyden Fernández

Biography

Leyden Fernández is a bioinformatician currently serving as a postdoctoral fellow in Maria Fällman's research group at Umeå University. His research centers on deciphering adaptation strategies of pathogenic bacteria with the aim of identifying novel antimicrobial targets. He holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biochemistry from Havana University, Cuba, and subsequently pursued a Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in Spain. He developed expertise in microbial ecology while completing his Ph.D. at Uppsala University. Leyden also gained valuable research experience in a short postdoctoral position focused on stem cell biology and single-cell transcriptomics at Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Before his current role, he conducted postdoctoral research at IceLab, where he focused on identifying bacterial determinants targeted for the development of new antimicrobial agents. In his present work in Maria Fällman's lab, he is analyzing niche-adaptation strategies of pathogens, with a special emphasis on Salmonella enterica, and is engaged in cross-species data integration that combines genomic and RNA-seq data from 29 diverse pathogens. This approach aims to explore global responses that could inform broader antimicrobial interventions. Leyden is also involved in the 2024 Co-PATHOgenex web application assessing complex stress responses of pathogenic bacteria.

Research Interests