Rita Vassena, DVM, PhD, Scientific Director

Dr. Vassena has an extensive professional and publication record in the field of reproduction. A University of Milan graduate, she has long been interested in issues of oocyte quality and preimplantation developmental competence. She has carried out research both at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and at the Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona on issues of pluripotency and chromatin remodelling. She is the General Scientific Director of the Grupo EUGIN, is an Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona, and serves on the Executive Committee of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

Montserrat Barragán, PhD, Senior Researcher

After earning her PhD in Biochemistry in 2002 and working at Pompeu Fabra University and the Center for Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona until 2013, Dr, Barragán joined the Human Reproductive Biology Lab at Eugin, where she leads a research team focusing on different aspects of both oocyte and sperm biology. Her current research interests are focused in gamete quality in terms of human fertility, applying “omics” studies to human oocytes and sperm, and studying signal transduction mechanisms in relation with failed fertilization and male infertility.

Gustavo Tiscornia, PhD, Senior Researcher

Dr. Tiscornia earn his PhD at the University of Wisconsin, did postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, was a Ramon y Cajal Fellow at the Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona and a Professor at the University of Algarve, Portugal. He joined the Basic Research Laboratory at Eugin under a Torres-Quevedo fellowship in 2016. His areas of expertise include stem cell biology and in vitro disease modeling. He currently leads a research team focused and several aspects of reproductive biology, ranging from developing an in vitro model of human implantation to studies of extracellular vesicles in sperm.

Anna Ferrer Vaquer, PhD, Senior Research Assistant

After graduating in Biology at the Universitat de Barcelona, Dr. Ferrer earned her PhD in embryology at the Albert-Lüdwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany, in 2008. She then completed postdoctoral work at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA, where she worked on germ layer formation in the mammalian embryo. She earned a Master’s in Assisted Reproduction and joined Clínica Eugin Spain in 2014, where she now focuses on oocyte maturation.

Paula Vergaro Varela, PhD student

Paula completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Santiago de Compostela and earned her Master’s at the University of Oviedo in 2014. She is currently working on her PhD degree at Eugin in collaboration with Prof. J. Santaló of the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (www.uab.cat), focusing on in vitro analysis of human implantation and vaginal microbiota studies.

Marc Torra Massana, PhD student.

Marc earned his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Barcelona in 2014. He completed his Master’s at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in 2015. He is currently working on his PhD degree at Eugin under the co-direction of Prof. R. Oliva (Molecular Biology of Reproduction and Development Laboratory, UB (http://www.ub.edu/humangen), studying the molecular mechanisms underlying fertilization failure.

David Cornet Bartolome, PhD student

David received his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Barcelona in 2014. In 2015, he completed his Master’s degree at the University of Barcelona. He is currently working on his Industrial PhD degree at Clínica Eugin Spain, where under the co-direction of Prof. D. Grinberg of the University of Barcelona (www.ub.edu/genetica/humanaen/grinberg.htm), he is focusing on the characterization of long non-coding RNAs as markers of oocyte quality.

Paraskevi Karamtzioti, PhD student

Paraskevi received her undergraduate degree at the Democritus University of Thrace (Greece) in 2012. She earned her Master’s at the University of Kent, UK in 2014 and completed an internship at the Department of Veterinary Biochemistry (University of Antwerp, Belgium. Co-supervised by Prof. I. Vernos of the Center for Genomic Regulation (www.crg.eu) she is currently conducting research at Clínica Eugin Spain towards a PhD degree, focusing on the characterization of tubulin post-translational modifications throughout maturation of human oocytes.

Agustina Alessandroni, PhD student

Agustina received her BSc degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) in 2014. She completed her master’s degree at the UAB in 2016. Under the co-direction of Prof. M. López-Bejar of the UAB she is currently working on her PhD degree at CIRH focusing on the role of extracellular vesicles in human reproduction.

Alumni

Farners Amargant Riera, PhD student (April 2014 – July 2018)

Judith Bello, Master Student (January 2018 – July 2018)

Silvia Llonch, Master student (September 2013 – July 2014)

Ana Martínez, Master Student (September 2013 – July 2014)

Thomas Freour, Visiting researcher (January 2015 – December 2015)

Emanuela Bellu, Master student (March 2016 – September 2016)

Aina Nicolau, Master student (January 2017- July 2017)