Assistant Professor (Rovira i Virgili University) | Department Associate (Harvard University) | CIBERobn member
Reproductive Biology and Human Nutrition
Albert Salas-Huetos
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Dr. Salas-Huetos obtained his Bachelor of Science (Biology) from the Universitat de Girona (UdG) in 2009, his MSc in Cell Biology in 2010 at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and his PhD in Cell Biology (Cum-Laude and Extraordinary Doctorate Award) in 2016 at the same University (UAB). He joined the Genetics of Male Fertility group (Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology -UAB-) as a PhD Student, and Human Nutrition Unit (Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology -Universitat Rovira i Virgili; URV-) in 2016 as a Post-doctoral Fellowship. He spent a three-month Post-doctoral stay (September-December 2017) at Universidad de Guadalajara in Mexico (UdeG). He obtained his second Post-doctoral Fellowship at the University of Utah (UofU; United States of America). He had a position for two years and four months (2018 to 2020) at this university with a visa for 5 years. Over that period, he worked on different large international multicentric projects (e.g., GEMINI Project, FAZST Project, IMIGC consortium, and FERTINUTS Project, among others) related to genetics and epigenetics of male fertility and nutrition as a Director of Dietary/Epigenetic studies and outreach activities organization. He obtained his third Post-doctoral Fellowship at Harvard University (USA). His mentor was Prof. Jorge E. Chavarro, who is leading a high international recognized research group specialized in Nutrition and Epidemiology. He was at Harvard between 2020 and 2021 and worked on different large international multicentric projects (e.g. NURSES’ HEALTH STUDY, GUTS, and EARTH, among others) related to (epi)genetics of male fertility and nutrition. In 2021 he obtained a Senior Juan de la Cierva Postdoc at UdG (Spain). Nowadays, he is an Assistant Professor at Rovira i Virgili University (Spain), Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (USA), and a member of the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de la Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain) while he is keeping active collaborations with all his past research groups (UAB, URV, UdeG, UofU, UdG). He has participated in 11 competitive national and international projects (Principal or Co-Principal Investigator in 4) and he was awarded with 4 competitive, postdoctoral research contracts with a total of 39 months abroad as a post-doc. Albert has been teaching for 10 academic years at different universities (UAB, UdeG, UofU and UdG) with more than 530 h of magistral lectures (theory) and practicals (including Doctorate and Master courses). He has supervised 5 Degree (BSc) Projects and 2 Master (MSc) Projects, participated in 6 Final Degree committees, and is currently supervising 2 PhD Thesis. The main contributions of his scientific activity are reflected in a total of 81 original articles (Q1: 65/81; first or corresponding author: 25/81) in SCI/JCR-journals (some in collaboration with foreign authors, 26/81) (plus 5 submitted), and 2 international and 1 national book chapters (plus 4 submitted). He has attended 8 national and 5 international conferences as invited (plenary) speaker and he was the leading author of more than 10 contributions in international conferences (plus 14 as a collaborator author). He is an inveterate traveler and has been to meetings and given invited lectures in Belgium, Canada, England, Italy, Mexico, Poland, USA, and Spain. His research has been mainly focused on male infertility (epi)genetics and nutrition and has been specialized in sperm miRNAs, molecular biology, Randomized Clinical Trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. He has been awarded with prestigious prizes, including the PhD Extraordinary Award 2018 (UAB), the 45th, 44th and 36th Annual Conference of American Society of Andrology Travel Award (NIH) and an Andrology Award 2016 (Andrology journal). In the last years, Dr. Salas-Huetos was habilitated as a Tenure-Track Lecturer and Associate Professor (Prof. Lector, Prof. Ayudante Doctor, Prof. Universidad Privada, Prof. Contratado Doctor, and Prof. Agregat) by the Regional Catalan Government (AQU) and the Spanish Government (ANECA). Dr. Salas-Huetos is an Editorial Board Member in 2 journals (PeerJ; and Reproductive, Female and Child Health), a Reviewer Editor in 3 journals (Front. Cell Dev. Biol.; Front. Endocrinol.; and Front. Physiol.) and a Special Issue Editor in 7 journals (Animals; Biology; Front. Cell Dev. Biol.; Front. Reprod. Health; Genes; J. Clin. Med.; and JoVE). He is also a regular reviewer for 35 SCI/JCR journals. He is an expert of the Agencia Estatal de Investigación for national projects evaluation. Very recenlty he was accreditated with the research excellence I3 certificate (Spanish Government).
MY LATEST RESEARCH
"The inclusion of nuts in a Western-style diet significantly improves the total sperm count and the vitality, motility, and morphology of the sperm. These findings could be partly explained by a reduction in the sperm DNA fragmentation."
Salas-Huetos A, Moraleda R, Giardina S, Anton E, Blanco J, Salas-Salvadó J & Bulló M (2018). Effect of nut consumption on semen quality and functionality in healthy males consuming a Western-style diet: a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 108(5), 833-848.
"Male adherence to a healthy diet could improve semen quality and fecundability rates."
Salas-Huetos A, Bulló M & Salas-Salvadó J (2017). Dietary patterns, foods and nutrients in male fertility parameters and fecundability: a systematic review of observational studies. Human Reproduction Update, 23(4), 371-389
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Telenotícies vespre - 21/03/2017
"We demonstrated that adherence to a MD was positively associated with sperm motility parameters."
Salas-Huetos A, Babio N, Carrell DT, Bulló M & Salas-Salvadó J (2019). Adherence to the Mediterranean diet is positively associated with sperm motility: A cross-sectional analysis. Scientific Reports, 9(1)3389. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39826-7.