Marc Yeste, FHEA, FRSB, FYAE graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Biology) from Girona University, an MSc in Biotechnology, and earned a European PhD in Reproductive Biology. He also graduated with a Bachelor of Political and Social Sciences from UNED and read additional BA (Phil) courses.
Marc was a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London (2006-2007) and was promoted to Assistant Professor of Cell Biology at the Faculty of Human Medicine, University of Girona (2008). In 2011, he moved to the Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, Autonomous University of Barcelona, as a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Research Fellow. He lectured Reproductive Technology and Physiology of Obstetrics, and Animal Reproduction at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. In 2014, Marc joined the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, as a Marie Curie Fellow, and began to lecture in the MSc in Clinical Embryology, in which he is still involved. In 2016, he moved back to Girona University as a Senior Research Fellow (Ramón y Cajal).
Currently, Marc is an ICREA Academia Professor at the Department of Biology, University of Girona, and Director at TechnoSperm, Centre for Reproductive Biotechnology (www.technosperm.com). He teaches at the Faculties of Human Medicine, Nursing and Sciences, at the Polytechnic School, and for the MSc in Food Biotechnology, and in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine. In addition, he has been a Guest Lecturer at Oxford University (UK), University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), University of Alicante (Spain), Antonio Nariño University (Colombia), Federal University of Lavras (Brazil) and University of Murcia (Spain).
On the other hand, Marc is Editor-in-Chief of Animal Reproduction Science (Elsevier), Senior Editor of Scientific Reports (the multidisciplinary journal of Nature publishing group); Associate Editor of BMC Biology, Reproduction, Fertility and Development (CSIRO Publishing), Frontiers in Physiology (Frontiers) and Frontiers in Endocrinology (Frontiers); and Editorial Board Member of Theriogenology and Cryobiology (Elsevier). He has been a peer reviewer for more than 120 scientific journals, and an expert evaluator for research grants at different funding agencies, including AEI, Spain; BBRSC, UK; Teagasc, Ireland; Marie Curie-COFUND, EU; NSERC, Canada; CONCYT, Argentina; MRC, UK; NSC, Poland; Lalor Foundation, USA; NWO, The Netherlands; MOST, Israel; and GACR, Czech Republic.
His research has tackled different angles of Reproductive Biology in mammals (encompassing humans, pigs, cattle, horses, donkeys, sheep, mice, cats and dogs): sperm physiology (including sperm capacitation), interactions of sperm with epithelial cells from different reproductive tissues (epididymis and fallopian tube/oviduct), presence and growth of microbes in semen and implications for its preservation, sperm cryopreservation, cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos, genetics of infertility, oocyte activation deficiency, in vitro maturation of oocytes and fertility preservation.
Marc’s track-record includes about 400 publications: >240 papers and >130 abstracts in SCI/JCR-indexed journals, mostly Q1-ranked. In addition, he has authored five articles in non-scientific, dissemination journals, 17 book chapters (editor in three), and >260 contributions to congresses (>30 as invited, plenary speaker), and is a patent inventor. He has taken part in more than 100 research grants and contracts with companies (national and international), including funding from the European Commission (FP7 and H2020 schemes), retaining the PI role in >40. Thus far, Marc has supervised 16 PhD students, 12 post-docs, 27 MSc students and >60 undergraduate students. Moreover, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), and a member of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), the Society for Cryobiology (SfC), the European Society of Domestic Animal Reproduction (ESDAR), the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), and the Spanish Society of Animal Reproduction (AERA).
Finally, Marc’s teaching and research activities have been recognised at both national and international levels. He was habilitated as a Full Professor by the Catalan Agency for Quality Assessment of Universities (AQU) and by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation, Spain (ANECA), and was awarded with the I3, Outstanding Research Certificate (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Spain) in 2019. In addition, he has been recognised as a Chartered Biologist (CBiol) by the Royal Society of Biology, and as a Chartered Scientist (CSci) and Chartered Science Teacher (CSciTeach) by the Science Council. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (RSB), Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE), and a Member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors. Since 2023, he is the Secretary of the Young Academy of Europe.