Jordi
Roca Aleu

Licensed in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zaragoza in 1983 and Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Murcia in 1989 with a thesis entitled "Reproductive parameters of the Murciano-Granadina goat breed. An experimental study", for which he was awarded the University of Murcia's Special Doctorate Prize in 1992. Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 1992 under the supervision of Professor W M Maxwell, where he studied the cryopreservation of sheep semen. Since 2000, he has been a founding Diplomate of the European College of Animal Reproduction (ECAR) and, since 2010 of the European College of Porcine Health Management (ECPHM). His research has been developed in the Animal Reproduction (from 1989 to 2021) and Animal Andrology (from 2022) research groups at the University of Murcia, of which he was one of the founders. His research has focused on reproductive biotechnology, mainly in goats and pigs. Research on pigs has had a twofold objective. On the one hand, to improve the reproductive efficiency of this important livestock species and, on the other, to gain knowledge about male in- and sub-fertility, the latter research being applicable to the human species, as the pig is an excellent animal model. In recent years, research has focused on seminal plasma with the main objective of identifying fertility and sperm quality markers among its molecular cargo. In this context, recent research has focused on the extracellular vesicles present in seminal plasma. Among the most important results obtained are the following: (1) the development of insemination procedures for the efficient use of cryopreserved semen and sexed spermatozoa in swine species, procedures that have been patented and licensed to companies in the sector; (2) the production of pigs of the desired sex through the use of sexed spermatozoa; (3) the development of an efficient protocol for sperm cryopreservation in swine species; (4) identification of seminal plasma molecules as potential markers of male fertility, such as oxytocin or the enzymes glutathione peroxidase 5 and paraoxonase type 1; (5) phenotypic and compositional characterization of porcine seminal extracellular vesicles; and (6) identification of potential fertility markers among the proteins loaded in seminal extracellular vesicles. The research has been funded by 25 national and regional competitive grants (14 as principal investigator) and has resulted in 301 research articles published in JCR journals (205 of them in the first quartile). As a result of the research, two patents have been obtained and licensed to the German company Minitüb and the American company STgenetics. He has also participated in two international research projects focused on seminal plasma. Most of the research carried out has been transferred to industry, both to the livestock industry and to human fertility centers, through a total of 63 agreements, of which he is the responsible researcher in 33. The results of the research have been communicated in 87 national and international meetings, in 16 of which he has participated as an invited speaker. It is worth mentioning the cooperation with researchers from foreign scientific institutions, which is reflected in the co-authorship of 93 JCR articles with researchers from other countries.