Larissa Zárate García

As I child I was obsessed with the X-Men comics, and made clear that I would become a geneticist one day. However, when I started my degree in Biology at the University of Salamanca I realised how much I enjoyed Embryology and Reproduction, and how I could combine all three disciplines by becoming an embryologist. I therefore took a MSc in Human Assisted Reproduction at the Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad, where I also learned about embryonic stem cells and genetic preimplantational diagnostic. I trained my skills in IVF clinics in Spain and Portugal. At the same time I became an expert in science communication by the Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura. Thanks to these abilities I obtained a PhD studentship at the University of Southampton, where I studied whether female mammals contain germline stem cells in their ovaries, and the possibility that they give rise to competent eggs that can be used in IVF.