Academic work

Research

Peer-reviewed articles, conference presentations, funded research projects, and supervision.

Peer-reviewed

Articles

Journal articles, most recent first.

May 2026 GeoHealth

Climatic Influence on COVID-19: Investigating the Role of Temperature and Humidity in the Spread of the Omicron Variant

Leonardo López, Alejandro Fontal, Brandon Alfaro, Xavier Rodó

COVID-19 · Climate & Health · Time Series Analysis · Infectious Diseases

Journal

Dec 2025 Atmospheric Measurement Techniques

Laser-Induced Fluorescence coupled with Machine Learning as an effective approach for real-time identification of bacteria in bioaerosols

Alejandro Fontal, Sílvia Borràs, Lidia Cañas, Sofya Pozdniakova, Xavier Rodó

Microbiology · Machine Learning · Laser-Induced Fluorescence · Aerobiology

Journal PDF Code

Jul 2025 iScience

Integrating air microbiome for comprehensive air quality analysis

Sofya Pozdniakova, Akira Uchida, Alejandro Fontal, Lidia Cañas, Samuel Santamaría, Lim Yee Hui, Irvan Luhung, Stephan C. Schuster, Xavier Rodó, Sílvia Borràs

Microbiology · Microbiome · Aerobiology · Environmental monitoring

Journal PDF Code

Sep 2024 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Microbial richness and air chemistry in aerosols above the PBL confirm 2,000-km long-distance transport of potential human pathogens

Xavier Rodó, Sofya Pozdniakova, Sílvia Borràs, Atsushi Matsuki, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Maria-Pilar Armengol, Irina Pey, Jordi Vila, Laura Muñoz, Samuel Santamaría, Lidia Cañas, Josep-Anton Morguí, Alejandro Fontal, Roger Curcoll

Microbiology · Metagenomics · Aerobiology · Infectious Diseases

Journal PDF Code

Jul 2023 Environmental Research Letters

Sub-weekly signatures relate ultrafine aerosols enriched in metals from intensive farming and urban pollution to Kawasaki disease

Xavier Rodó, Albert Navarro-Gallinad, Tomoko Kojima, Josep-Anton Morguí, Sílvia Borràs, Alejandro Fontal

Kawasaki Disease · Time Series Analysis · Air Pollution & Health

Journal PDF Code

Oct 2021 Nature Computational Science

Climatic signatures in the different COVID-19 pandemic waves across both hemispheres

Alejandro Fontal, Menno J. Bouma, Adrià San José, Leonardo López, Mercedes Pascual, Xavier Rodó

COVID-19 · Time Series Analysis · Climate & Health · Infectious Diseases

Journal PDF Code

Apr 2021 JAMA Network Open

COVID-19 Pandemic Sets New Clues on the Transmission Pathways in Kawasaki Disease

Xavier Rodó, Alejandro Fontal

COVID-19 · Kawasaki Disease · Epidemiology · Infectious Diseases

Journal PDF

Conferences

Presentations

Talks and posters at international meetings.

March 2026 Oral presentation

Seasonality changes may hold essential clues to KD etiology: An age-stratified spatiotemporal analysis in Japan

2nd IKDR and EUROKiDs Joint Kawasaki Conference · Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Alejandro Fontal, Yukako Yoshikane, Fumito Maruyama, Masaki Fujita, Yasuyuki Gondo, Xavier Rodó

September 2023 Poster

Unravelling the environmental etiology of Kawasaki disease in Japan: Insights from spatiotemporal patterns

PReS 2023, 29th European Paediatric Rheumatology Congress · Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Alejandro Fontal, Sofya Pozdniakova, Sílvia Borràs, Jane C. Burns, Yosikazu Nakamura, Xavier Rodó

September 2023 Poster

Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) for a benchmark near real-time characterization of the aerobiome

European Aerosol Conference (EAC 2023) · Málaga, Spain

Alejandro Fontal, Sílvia Borràs, Lídia Cañas, Sofya Pozdniakova, Xavier Rodó

April 2023 Virtual poster

Rich microbial diversity in tropospheric samples above the planetary boundary layer confirms long-distance transport of potential human pathogens

EGU General Assembly 2023 · Vienna, Austria

Xavier Rodó, Sofya Pozdniakova, Roger Curcoll, Alejandro Fontal, Atsushi Matsuki, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Maria Pilar Armengol, Irina Pey, Jordi Vila, Laura Muñoz, Lídia Cañas, Josep-Anton Morguí, Sílvia Borràs

Abstract or summary

April 2022 Poster

Tracing Tokyo’s air sources to identify Kawasaki Disease’s etiological triggers

20th International Vasculitis and ANCA Workshop · Dublin, Ireland

Alejandro Fontal, Sofya Pozdniakova, Sílvia Borràs, Lídia Cañas, Roger Curcoll, Josep-Anton Morguí, Atsushi Matsuki, Xavier Rodó

Abstract or summary

August 2020 Poster

Teasing out the role of temperature and humidity in the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide

AGU-WMO International Conference on the Meteorological, Climatological and Air Quality Factors on COVID-19 · Online

Alejandro Fontal, Adrià San José, Leonardo López, Xavier Rodó

Funded research

Research projects

Competitive projects I have worked on, with my role in each.

2024–2027 European Commission, Horizon Europe

PREPARE-TID: Pipeline for Rapid Diagnostics of Emergency Transboundary Infectious Diseases

Researcher at ISGlobal: machine learning for near real-time bioaerosol identification and data pipelines.

Project page

2023–2027 Wellcome Trust

ARBOTHAI: Multi-scale seamless prediction of arboviral outbreaks in Thailand

Data pipelines and infrastructure for the dengue forecasting platform, and scientific advice to the project.

Project page

2020–2021 Instituto de Salud Carlos III, COVID-19 Fund

COV20/00144: Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: detection in hospitals and innovative technologies

Researcher: real-time optical detection of bioaerosols.

2019–2023 European Commission, H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network

HELICAL: HEalth data LInkage for ClinicAL benefit

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher in a network on vasculitis, including ANCA-associated vasculitis and Kawasaki disease: time-series and spatial methods to quantify environmental signals in disease onset.

Project page

Training

Supervision & teaching

Student supervision and course development.

2024, 2026

Master's thesis supervision

Two Master's theses (TFM) in the MSc in Fundamentals of Data Science, Universitat de Barcelona.

2016–2017

Online course development

Assignments and course material for more than ten edX MOOCs, Wageningen University & Research.