Mariacruz Lopez Diaz graduated in Veterinary Medicine at School of Veterinary, UCM, Spain with a Master´s degree in Endocrinology and Reproduction from The School of Veterinary Medicine, U-W Madison and received her PhD in Veterinary Sciences from University Santiago de Compostela (Spain) 1995. In 1992 as a Researcher in the Dairy Department she was involved in trials looking at the effects of different stressful conditions on reproductive performance. CIAM, La Coruña (Spain). Current position since 2010 as a Researcher in the Department of Animal Reproduction (Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, INIA Madrid - Spain), Dr Lopez-Diaz is involved on germline technologies for avian germplasm preservation and Avian Transgenic. As a Visiting Researcher at Salk Institute (La Jolla San Diego USA) in 2014, she worked on novel technologies for primordial germ cells in avian. Other position from 2003 to 2010 the researcher joined the Spanish Chief Veterinary Office, working at the Central Veterinary Laboratory, she was involved in the screening of prion diseases in domestic animals.

Dr. Lopez-Diaz’s research interests are focused on the understanding of stem cell biology, and tissue regeneration. During the last few years, she has concentrated on studying the molecular basis implicated in the culture of blastodermal and primordial germ cells in the avian embryo and the differentiation of stem cells into various tissues. She pursues the establishment of an Avian Transgenic unit with two main purposes: the production of avian biofactories for recombinant pharmaceuticals (monoclonal antibodies) in egg white and the development of transgenic models for different diseases, such as neurodegenerative processes. Besides, the ultimate goal of her research is to apply this knowledge towards the development of therapies in Regenerative Medicine based on neural progenitor cells.