Project 1
Human sperm cryopreservation as an alternative for the decline of sperm quality with aging
Host Institution:
IVI-MURCIA (Murcia, Spain)
Doctoral Candidate: Peter Silke
Supervisor: Dr. Juan Carlos Martínez
Co-supervisors: Dr. Carmen Matás | Dr. Nicola Bernabo
Enrolment in Doctoral degrees: UMU (Biology and Technology of Reproductive Health)-UNITE (Cellular and Molecular Biotechnologies)
OBJECTIVES
- To evaluate the impact of human aging in genetic and epigenetic signature of human sperm from patients <40 years old vs > 45 years old.
- To analize if human sperm cryopreservation (slow freezing vs vitrification) could be useful to circumvent the decline of sperm quality by aging.
- To predict an individual’s age based on molecular markers as sperm DNA methylation signatures and telomerase length.
- To analyse the impact of age in human sperm selected ncRNAs, based on results from R2 in mouse.
- To assess if the use of human sperm ncRNAs as molecular markers has complementary clinical value for assessment of fertility evaluation.


