Cristina Soriano-Úbeda is Graduated in Veterinary Medicine (DVM, 2009, University of Murcia, Spain), MSc. in Biology and Technology of Reproduction in Mammals (2010, University of Murcia, Spain), MSc. in Biology of Human Reproduction (2013, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Spain), and PhD in Biology of Reproductive Health (2017, University of Murcia, Spain).
During her PhD, she was funded by a “Contrato Predoctoral para la Formación de Doctores” from the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science. Her Doctoral Thesis was scored as “Cum Laude” unanimously and got the “International Mention”. She held visiting scientist positions at the Department of Animal Science, Graduate School of Environmental & Life Science, Okayama University (Okayama, Japan) in 2015, and at the School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham (Birmingham, United Kingdom) in 2016. She participated in 5 national public research projects (1 funded by Junta de Castilla y León, 3 by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and 1 by the “Seneca Foundation” of the Region of Murcia), 1 international (National Institute of Health, USA) and 2 private research contracts with companies (IVI-RMA S.A. and IMPOR-VET S.A.). She has published 26 scientific articles (25 of them in Q1 in JRC journals), 55 communications to conferences (16 of them published in Q1 JCR journals) including teaching conferences and 2 of them got the 1st and 2nd Postgraduate Award for the Best Oral Communication. She has also published 1 book chapter. She counts with a total of 258 citations and an H-index of 9 in Scopus, and 12 in Google Scholar. She has supervised 1 Honor Thesis (Trabajo Fin de Grado) scored 9.6/10. She is a reviewer of at least 10 JCR scientific journals and Guest Editor in 2 of them and is an Evaluator of 3 international research projects (FONCyT, Argentinian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Productive Innovation. She was a member of the Committee of Doctoral Thesis (in September 2019). She taught Animal Physiology in Veterinary Medicine (from 2014 to 2019), several subjects in the Ms. in Biology and Technology of Reproduction in Mammals, and several courses of specialization in reproduction (total 365 hours). She has supervised 1 Honor Thesis (TFG). She was positively certified by the Spanish “Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación” (ANECA) as “Profesor Contratado Doctor” in October 2021.
Her first postdoctoral period in 2018 was developed as Director of the Embryocloud Laboratory specialized in mammalian reproduction including humans. During her second postdoctoral period (2019 to 2021) she was working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (Amherst, MA, United States) in the laboratory of Dr. Rafael Fissore, a widely recognized leader in oocyte activation and calcium homeostasis in mice. From May 2021 she joined the REPROBIO research group at the University of León, which is directed by Dr. Felipe Martínez-Pastor. In REPROBIO, she is currently studying the status of the chromatin condensation and damage in pig spermatozoa and its implications on fertility. These studies are especially interesting for the animal industry because they will allow the development of new technologies to improve the efficiency of animal production in swine.
She has mastery of highly complex cellular and molecular biology techniques: analysis of gametes functionality, computerized semen analysis, Western Blot, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), genotyping, optic and fluorescence microscopy, immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry, fluorimetry and spectrophotometry, confocal imaging, oocyte in vitro maturation and fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), embryo culture and transference, gametes and embryo cryopreservation, laboratory direction and management, database management and statistical analysis. With this experience, Dr. Soriano-Úbeda has developed the skills and knowledge to carry out research projects independently in the laboratory, to design and conduct experiments and to write and review scientific articles. In addition, the applicant is fluent in spoken and written Spanish and English. Her long-term research goals are to study the molecular basis of gametes’ functionality related to fertility, and her objective is to gain new insights into assisted reproduction technologies that can be applied to overcome infertility and for species conservation. Her main professional goal is also related to teaching, which could contribute to training the next generation of scientists.
