Jose V. Torres-Pérez

University of Valencia

Dr Torres-Pérez is a neurobiologist working as a Research Fellow at the Department of Functional Biology, Cell Biology, and Physical Anthropology, at the University of Valencia (Spain). He holds a PhD in Clinical Medicine Research from the Imperial College London (UK) and a Master's in Neuroscience from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UV). Dr. Torres-Pérez has worked as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at Queen Mary University of London (UK) and as a Research Associate in Epigenetics at Imperial College’s Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI). Dr Torres-Pérez’s research interests are the neural processes influencing pain and sociability, particularly associated epigenetic changes. He has experience using conventional and non-conventional animal models, including rats, mice, and zebrafish, and with human samples. 

Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini

Università degli Studi Padova–Padova Neuroscience Centre

Dr Miletto Petrazzini is a Researcher at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padua (Italy). She has a PhD in Psychological Sciences and a Master's in the Evolution of Animal and Human Behaviour. Dr Miletto Petrazzini worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padova. She worked as a Marie Curie research fellow at Queen Mary University of London and then as a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Biomedical Science (University of Padova). Dr. Miletto Petrazzini has extensive expertise in animal behaviour and cognition. Her research interests focus on the evolution of cognitive abilities in animals, with specific reference to non-verbal numerical systems, visual perception, and the impact of brain lateralization on cognitive functions, using fish as model species. She won a Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship and was granted by the University of Padua the STARS Starting Grant.

María Abellán Álvaro

University of Valencia

Dr. María Abellán-Álvaro has developed his research career in different fields of behavioral neurobiology, especially in the processing and response of olfactory stimuli in the central nervous system. She developed her PhD thesis at the Universitat de València where she focused on the regulation of maternal behaviors, as well as changes induced by maternity in the central nervous system of female mice. Dr Abellán-Álvaro was awarded two research grants, an APOSTD funded by the Valencian Regional Government (GVA), and a Margarita Salas grant funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain) and supported by the EU Next Generation funds. In her first postdoctoral stage, she studied the interaction between exposure to early stress and deficiencies in Mecp2. She also collaborates on the characterization of altered pain perception in Mecp2-deficient mice. Her current main line of research focuses on the influence of olfactory stimuli on socio-sexual and mate-seeking behavior in different species.