Principal Investigator & Research Team
A multidisciplinary group of experts in neuroendocrinology, metabolism, and reproductive biology.
Principal Investigator
Prof. Manuel Tena-Sempere
Professor of Physiology at the University of Córdoba (Spain), with internationally recognised expertise in the neuroendocrine control of puberty and reproduction.
His research combines molecular, physiological, and translational approaches to investigate how central and peripheral signals regulate reproductive function, with a particular focus on the integration of metabolic cues.
Prof. Tena-Sempere has authored over 300 scientific publications and has been awarded multiple competitive research grants supporting his work on puberty, metabolism, and reproductive health.
The Research Team
DOPA-Kiss is supported by a highly skilled research team combining expertise in neuroscience, molecular biology, endocrinology, and metabolism. The project’s multidisciplinary nature ensures a comprehensive approach to its scientific objectives, integrating advanced experimental techniques with robust data analysis and translational perspectives.
Research Members in the DOPA-Kiss Project
Mr. Juan Manuel Trujillo Luque
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Ms. Celia Llorente Otero
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Ms. Ana Calero García
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Dr. Marina Mora-Ortiz
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Meet the GC10 Researchers Contributing to the DOPA-Kiss Project
Prof. Juan Roa Rivas
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Prof. María Jesús Vázquez Sánchez
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Prof. Rafael Pineda Reyes
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Dr. Juan Manuel Castellano Rodríguez
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Prof. Miguel Ángel Sánchez-Garrido
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Prof. David Garcia-Galiano
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Mr. Juan Manuel Trujillo Luque:
Mr. Trujillo Luque holds a high school diploma in Health Sciences from IES Nuevo Scala in Rute (Córdoba). He later completed a Higher National Diploma in Clinical and Biomedical Laboratory at IES Juan de Aréjula in Lucena (Córdoba). In July 2023, he completed the Animal Experimentation Course (SAEX) at the Campus de Rabanales. He is currently working as a laboratory technician in the GC10 research group, where he carries out various tasks for the DOPA-Kiss project, including performing PCRs, DNA extraction, laboratory cleaning and organization, as well as different procedures in the animal facility such as animal care, handling, and sample collection.
Ms. Celia Llorente Otero:
Ms. Llorente Otero holds a degree in Biotechnology with a specialization in Biomedicine from the University of Cádiz (UCA) and continued her training by completing a Master’s degree in Regenerative Biomedicine at the University of Granada (UGR). She is currently pursuing her PhD within the GC10 research group on Hormonal Regulation of Energy Balance, Puberty, and Reproduction at the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research of Córdoba (IMIBIC), as part of the DOPA-Kiss project. Her doctoral work focuses on conducting neuroanatomical, molecular, and functional studies of the Kiss1 neuronal population in a murine model to investigate the regulation of puberty and the reproductive axis.
Ms. Ana Calero García:
Ms. Calero García completed her degree in Biology at the University of Córdoba (UCO) and continued her scientific career with a Master’s degree in Translational Biomedical Research at the same university. She subsequently furthered her postgraduate training with a Master’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Immunology at the UGR. She is currently pursuing her PhD within the GC10 research group on Hormonal Regulation of Energy Balance, Puberty, and Reproduction at IMIBIC, as part of the project Genomic editing of Kiss1 in vivo to assess metabolic pubertal control. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the genetic dissection of Kiss1 and related pathways in vivo, aiming to unravel the central mechanisms responsible for the metabolic control of puberty and their alterations in obesity.
Dr. Marina Mora-Ortiz:
Dr. Mora-Ortiz is currently a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the GC10 group at IMIBIC, where she arrived as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in 2021. Her expertise spans several omics applied to the study of neuroendocrine control of puberty and reproduction as part of the DOPA-Kiss project. She has held postdoctoral research positions at King’s College London, the University of Reading, and NIAB (Cambridge, UK) where she completed her PhD with another Marie Curie Fellowship, contributing to and co-leading several open-access, multi-omics research projects.
Prof. Juan Roa Rivas
Dr. Roa is Associate Professor of Physiology at the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology at UCO, and member of the research group GC-10 at IMIBIC. Prof. Roa has demonstrated extensive experience in the field of Neuroendocrinology, focusing his research on the mechanisms involved in the integrated control of metabolism and reproduction. Over the past few years, Juan Roa and his team have uncovered critical aspects related to the influence of nutritional status on the development of various metabolic and reproductive diseases
Prof. María Jesús Vázquez Sánchez:
Prof. Vázquez is Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Córdoba (Spain). She holds a degree in Biological Sciences, as well as a Master’s degree and a PhD from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Throughout her scientific career, she has focused on the central regulation of metabolism and energy balance. Her current work aims to identify novel hypothalamic mechanisms involved in the metabolic and epigenetic control of reproduction.
Prof. Rafael Pineda Reyes:
Prof. Pineda is Associate Professor of Physiology at UCO. He is an expert in the neuroendocrinology of puberty and reproduction, with a particular focus on how obesity disrupts these processes. His research combines electrophysiology, advanced immunofluorescence and confocal imaging, stereotaxic and viral techniques, and quantitative biomedical image analysis. He is a member of the BIO-310 (UCO) and GC10 (IMIBIC) research groups. Within the DOPA-Kiss project, he contributes his expertise on the Kiss1/GPR54 system in obesity models, providing electrophysiology, confocal imaging, and stereotaxic approaches, and supporting image-quantification training to investigate how hypothalamic Kiss1 circuits mediate obesity-induced pubertal alterations.
Dr. Juan Manuel Castellano Rodríguez:
Dr. Castellano is a Ramón y Cajal researcher at UCO. He investigates novel hypothalamic mechanisms involved in the control of metabolism and puberty. He contributes to the DOPA-Kiss project through the characterization of preclinical models of obesity-induced precocious puberty. After completing postdoctoral training at ONPRC (Oregon, USA), he returned to UCO with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Reintegration Grant. He currently leads a research line on the molecular mechanisms underlying pubertal and metabolic alterations in Prader–Willi Syndrome (PWS), funded by national and international agencies.
Prof. Miguel Ángel Sánchez-Garrido:
Prof. Sánchez-Garrido is Associate Professor of Physiology at UCO, whose scientific career has focused on the study of the metabolic control of reproduction. Currently, he is working on unraveling the pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning highly prevalent metabolic-reproductive disorders, such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and obesity-associated male hypogonadism and contributing to the development of the DOPA-Kiss project based on his proven expertise on the impact of metabolic cues on the pubertal development. Dr. Sánchez-Garrido has authored more than 50 scientific publications and has obtained several highly competitive research grants, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, and funding as principal investigator from the Spanish Ministry of Science.
Prof. David Garcia-Galiano:
Prof. Garcia-Galiano is an Assistant Professor at UCO and a researcher at IMIBIC. After a postdoctoral stay in the United States—where he was appointed as research faculty at the University of Michigan—he returned to IMIBIC in 2020 through a Marie Skłodowska-Curie reintegration grant. He plays an active role in the DOPA-Kiss1 project, investigating the molecular mechanisms that drive pubertal and metabolic disorders using advanced genetic-editing approaches such as Cre/LoxP and CRISPR/Cas9. He also contributes to MERLON, a research initiative funded by the European Union.
Collaborative Environment
The team operates within a collaborative network of national and international institutions, facilitating the exchange of knowledge, methodologies, and resources. This environment fosters scientific excellence and maximises the translational potential of the project’s findings.
