Ariadna Delgado Bermúdez (b. 1994) graduated with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2017), an MSc in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine from the University of Girona (2018) and a PhD from the University of Girona (2022)
In 2016, she joined the Centre TECNIO for Research in Biotechnology of Animal and Human Reproduction (TechnoSperm; www.technosperm.com), University of Girona, as an Internship Trainee. During 2017, she did an internship at the Unit of Biophysics, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Autonomous University of Barcelona. Back to the University of Girona, she was awarded with a Transfer and Innovation Grant (BTI Scheme) in 2018, when she also did an internship at Unit of Human Reproduction and Genetic Diagnosis, Clínica de Girona (GIROFIV). She was appointed as Lab Technician in November 2018 and she was involved in several research projects until July 2019, when she was awarded with a predoctoral fellowship from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Spain (PCD Scheme). On july 2022 Ariadna presented her PhD dissertation, for which she obtained an Excellent cum laude and the Extraordinary award from the PhD Programme. Moreover, she was awarded with the 2023 Prize to the Best PhD Thesis from the Col·legi de Biòlegs de Catalunya.
Ariadna's research is focused on the Reproductive Biology of different mammalian species (humans, cattle, horses and pigs), tackling both Cell and Molecular Biology angles. Her research topics cover the study of sperm proteins (proteomics and interactomics), sperm physiology, gamete cryopreservation, in vitro fertilisation, health control of mammalian spermatozoa (presence and growth of microorganisms) and fertility preservation.
During her PhD, on 2021 she did a research stay for 3 months at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell/Matrix Research from the University of Manchester. During this stay, Ariadna acquired practical training and deep understanding of the BioID approach to evaluate protein-protein interactions through proximity labelling. In this project different molecular biology techniques were involved, including cloning different genes into vectors to transform cell cultures for the expression of recombinant proteins, and also immunoblotting to check protein expression.
On 2022 she did another research stay for 3 months at the Institute for Biogenesis Research from the University of Hawaii. This stay allowed her to study the dynamics of sperm chromatin architecture. In this project Ariadna used different techniques to study the sperm nucleus, such as protamination, chromatin condensation, TUNEL and alkaline and neutral Comet.
In addition to her research activities, Ariadna also teaches for the Department, lecturing Cell Biology at the Faculties of Science and Medicine. In addition, she has been enrolled in the 11F initiative since 2018. Through this action, which aims at giving visibility to the work of Women in Science, Ariadna organises Workshops and other Science dissemination activities in Schools from a gender perspective.