18th International Conference of the AERA

  2. Ponentes

Ponentes

Ana Josefa Soler
University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Spain

Full professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Her research focuses on the development of assisted reproductive technologies (sperm cryopreservation, artificial insemination, and in vitro fertilization) in small ruminants, mainly sheep, goats, and deer. In recent years, her laboratory have concentrated on optimizing in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the above species. Using this ART, they have been able to obtain deer embryos, and in 2022, the first Manchego sheep lambs produced in vitro were born. In addition, the development of this technique has allowed to her team to understand the relationship between sperm characteristics and fertility. Currently, she is investigating the interaction between extracellular vesicles from female reproductive fluids and sperm, and their influence on sperm functionality and fertility.

Cristina Cuello
University of Murcia, Spain

Holds a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Murcia (1999) and a PhD from the same institution (2004). She is a member of the Animal Reproduction research group at the University of Murcia and has completed research stays at INRA-Nouzilly (Tours, France) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Uppsala, Sweden). Her research is focused on reproductive technologies in pigs, with particular emphasis on embryo technologies, including vitrification, non-surgical embryo transfer, in vitro embryo production, and genome editing using CRISPR. She has led and participated in several competitive research projects and is currently the principal investigator of a project aimed at optimizing gene editing in porcine oocytes and zygotes. Her contributions over the years to the development of embryo cryopreservation and transfer in the porcine species have been highly relevant, and her laboratory is recognized as a reference in these technologies.

Heriberto Rodríguez Martínez

Professor Emeritus Heriberto Rodriguez-Martinez has been working in andrology since he graduated (DVM Uruguay 1975, MSc 1980 & PhD Sweden 1983, Post-doc USA 1984) and throughout his academic life (Prof in reproductive biotechnology, SLU, 1991; Prof in reproductive biology, LiU, 2010; Prof Em from late 2017). Internationally active, he has tutored 66 graduate students to degree, hosted many post-docs and has a profuse track-record (authored about 600 original papers and reviews). He is mostly cited for his work in semen diagnostics and preservation, prognosis of male fertility as well as the function/s of seminal plasma (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5194-2124).

Kiho Lee
University of Missouri, USA

Graduated from Seoul National University with a Bachelor's degree in Animal Sciences. Then, he received MS and PhD from Purdue University, and Postdoc training from University of Missouri-Columbia. While at University of Missouri, he generated immune-deficient pigs that could support growth and proliferation of human induced pluripotent stem cells. During that time, he was also involved in establishing genome-edited pigs resistant to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSV) by disrupting CD163 gene using genome editing technology. He is currently Professor in the Division of Animal Sciences at University of Missouri and served as the Director of the National Swine Resource and Research Center (NSRRC) in US. Dr. Lee’s lab currently focuses on designing genetically engineered large animal models for agriculture and biomedicine. 

Priscila Ramos Ibeas
Department of Animal Reproduction at INIA, CSIC, Spain

She completed her PhD in 2014 at INIA, focusing on the effects of assisted reproductive technologies on embryos and offspring. She then undertook a Marie Curie ITN Postdoctoral Fellowship at Avantea (Italy, 2015–2016), followed by a Marie Curie IF at the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom, 2016–2018), where she investigated the molecular mechanisms of pluripotency and germline specification in pig embryos.

In 2018, she returned to Spain with a Talent Attraction Postdoctoral Fellowship, and in 2020, she was awarded a Ramón y Cajal position, establishing her research group at INIA, CSIC. Since 2021, she has held a Científico Titular position and currently co-leads the Animal Genomic Engineering Group. Her laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms governing early embryo development to reduce pregnancy loss in livestock, applying cutting-edge technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, single-cell RNA-seq, and extended embryo culture systems.
 

José Julián Garde López-Brea
Rector of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Spain

Rector of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) since 2020 and as President of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) since 2026. A Full Professor of Animal Production, holder of a PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the Complutense University of Madrid, and a Full Member of the Royal National Academy of Veterinary Sciences of Spain since 2007, he has developed a distinguished academic and scientific career of international standing in the field of reproductive biotechnologies applied to animal conservation and production.

Between 2011 and 2020, he served as Vice-Rector for Research and Scientific Policy at UCLM, with responsibilities for research strategy, doctoral education, and the institutional development of research. He has chaired the R&D&I Sectoral Commission of CRUE and has participated in several national bodies related to scientific evaluation, research funding, and university governance, including the Advisory Council of the Office of Science and Technology of the Spanish Congress of Deputies (Oficina C) and the Working Group for Scientific Advice to the Spanish Government (ONAC). He was also a member of the technical working group responsible for drafting the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2021–2027.

As Rector of UCLM and President of CRUE, he is actively engaged in promoting initiatives aimed at strengthening research, attracting and retaining talent, enhancing knowledge transfer, and increasing the social and economic impact of universities.

Carlos Andrés Pinzón-Arteaga
Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA

Carlos Andrés Pinzón-Arteaga, D.V.M., M.Sc., Ph.D., is a postdoctoral scientist in the Moazed Lab at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work combines biochemistry, epigenetics, embryology, and stem cell models to understand how cells establish and maintain their identity during early development, with broad implications for reproductive biology, agriculture, and regenerative medicine. He innovated technologies to manipulate DNA repair pathways for precise genome editing, enabling new large animal models of human disease and advancing applications in agricultural biotechnology. During his Ph.D. in the Jun Wu Lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center, he created the first bovine blastoids, developed a platform for large scale production of human blastoids, and helped create human embryo like structures that model the transition from implantation to gastrulation, providing new platforms to study early pregnancy and fertility. He also discovered that epigenetic silencing acts as a quality control checkpoint during the earliest stages of development, protecting the genome from instability as cells reprogram their identity and eliminating cells whose reprogramming fails, a safeguard with implications for embryo quality and pregnancy loss. His current work focuses on how gene regulatory networks, epigenetic mechanisms, and cell signaling pathways cooperate to control stem cell differentiation and preserve cell identity over time, and how their breakdown contributes to aging, cancer, and developmental disease.