Jesús Lavado García

Jesús Lavado García serves as Postdoctoral Researcher and Co-Principal Investigator at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU Biosustain), Technical University of Denmark. His research focuses on advancing bioprocess engineering for viral vector manufacturing, particularly recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) and virus-like particles (VLPs), with direct applications in gene therapy and vaccine development.

His core research areas include:

• Overcoming the cell density effect in mammalian cell cultures
• Optimizing full-to-empty particle ratios in rAAV production
• Engineering heparan sulfate proteoglycan interactions for enhanced transfection
• Metabolic pathway modulation for increased vector yields
• Statistical design of experiments for bioprocess optimization
• Glycobiology applications in viral vector manufacturing

Analysis of his 2022-2025 publications reveals concentrated innovation in rAAV/VLP process development, with emphasis on resolving production bottlenecks through cell engineering and bioprocess design. His work demonstrates particular expertise in leveraging DNA damage response pathways, extracellular vesicle dynamics, and metabolic engineering to enhance vector titers while maintaining quality attributes.

Scientific awards: No awards identified in source materials.

Dr. Lavado García actively mentors PhD candidates M. Rahimi (cell density effect engineering) and D. C. Tatjer (CHO-based rAAV processes). He serves as Principal Investigator for the Novo Nordisk Foundation-funded HEDGE-A project (2023-2026) targeting high-density rAAV manufacturing, and as Co-PI on multiple grants addressing viral vector production challenges through mammalian cell engineering approaches.

He leads the Quantitative Modeling of Cell Metabolism group at DTU Biosustain, collaborating with European research networks to develop scalable platforms for next-generation gene therapy vectors, with current work focusing on translation of lab-scale optimizations to industrial biomanufacturing.