**Francisco Llorente**

Francisco Llorente, Ph.D, is a Principal Investigator at the Animal Health Research Center (Centro de Investigacion en Sanidad Animal) (CISA-INIA), CSIC. His research focuses on arboviral ´ diseases of animals, mainly in the areas of pathogenesis, diagnosis and surveillance. He is currently involved in different national and international projects in relation with arboviral zoonosis, including those caused by flaviviruses. He finished his BS degree in Biology in 1992 at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and received his PhD from the same University in 2000, working at the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, INIA). Then, he moved to the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid for a ´ postdoctoral term for five years and since 2006, he has been working at CISA-INIA as a virologist and scientific researcher.
