Professor Cristina E. Requena, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 1 at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) in 2026 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (for more information about the 2026 call, please consult this link).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With more than 57,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and almost 7,000 members of staff, the UGR offers 97 undergraduate degrees, 157 master’s degrees (7 of which are double degrees) and 28 doctoral programmes via its 124 departments and nearly 50 centers. Accordingly, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.

The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the institution’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also internationally renowned for its excellence in diverse research fields and ranked among the top Spanish universities in a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, and international funding.

The UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The 2025 edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 301-400th position in the world and as the 3-8 highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings, the UGR is outstanding in Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence and Dentistry & Oral Sciences (ranked between 51th-75th position), Computer Science & Engineering, Education and Hospitality & Tourism Management (between 76-100th position), and in the areas of Food Science & Technology and Business Administration (between 101-150th position). A little lower in the ranking, the UGR also stands out in the areas of Earth Sciences, Law, Management, Nursing, Psychology and Statistics, in which the UGR is positioned in the 151-200th position.

Additionally, the UGR counts with 4 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list, most of them related to the Computer Science and Mathematics scientific areas. It is also well recognised for its presence in the top 200 Universities in Europe at 83th place.

Internationally, the University of Granada is firmly committed to its participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the prevoius Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, the UGR obtained a total of 124 projects with a total funding of more than €30 million. For the current Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, the UGR has obtained 136 projects, so far, with a total funding of more than €38 million.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:

Repro-UGR (https://repro.ugr.es/) is a young, enthusiastic, highly competitive and multidisciplinary group. Our overall goal is to bring more understanding into the molecular aspects of reproduction and develt, from the first steps of oocyte fertilisation and embryo development, endometrial maturation up to female and male infertility and how the infertility treatment outcomes and diagnosis could be improved. We combine molecular studies, in vitro and animal models with healthy or pathological clinical samples from fertility clinics, to obtain a wide vision of fertilisation and development and understand this complex and vital process.

Project description:

Epigenetic reprogramming is essential to change the transcriptional landscape during development, allowing the zygote to transit to different stages, while cell number is rising. This process begins with a whole genome reset immediately after fertilization to form the totipotent zygote and culminates with the differentiation to all cell types of a complete organism. Part of this fascinating and complex process rely on methylation of specific cytosines, especially in regulatory regions, to block gene expression. Removing this epigenetic mark is an intriguing process that we still try to understand in the field. It is believed that vertebrates lack a DNA demethylase enzyme, and that completing the elimination of this mark is carried out by a complex machinery, that on the other hand, serves to finetune the process. This mechanism means a challenge for the cell as it implicates to self-inflict DNA damage, even in the zygote when DNA methylation is almost globally erased. The aim of this research line is to explore the molecular mechanisms that allow to orchestrate epigenetic reprogramming and/or gene transcription activation while preserving DNA integrity.

Research Area:

Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Cristina E. Requena (cristina.requena@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)