Dr Ana Paredes 

Ana completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at the University of Seville in 2015. She then joined the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) through the CNIC Master’s Scholarship Programme, where she undertook her Master’s project under the supervision of Dr Mercedes Ricote. In 2017, she was awarded the FPI-Severo Ochoa fellowship to pursue her PhD, focusing on the role of retinoid X receptors in cardiovascular physiology. During her PhD, Ana identified a metabolite in breast milk that promotes postnatal heart maturation, a discovery published in Nature and recognised with multiple prestigious awards, including the Birnstiel International Prize, the Lilly Foundation Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and, the Pfizer Young Investigator 2024 Prize.

For her postdoctoral research, Ana joined the Vento-Tormo Group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge in 2023, supported by the prestigious  EMBO fellowship. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that govern human placenta formation, using advanced genomic technologies and organoid models.