I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral researcher on avian ecophysiology at the Department of Biology, University of Turku. In my research, I adopt an integrative approach to advance our understanding of eco-evolutionary processes in natural populations. I do this by applying ideas and techniques from complementary fields, such as evolutionary ecology, ecophysiology, and parasitology. In 2022, I obtained European funding (MSCA) to carry out my project (MATHORMAL) on the potential interplays between maternal hormonal effects, susceptibility to malaria infection, and accelerated ageing.
After finishing my degree in Biology at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), I conducted my degree dissertation in avian parasitology in the Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology (UCM). I did the official Master’s degree in Conservation Biology (UCM), which aimed to train experts in the diagnosis of biodiversity conservation problems and how to address their solutions. I finished my Master’s degree in 2009, and that same year I started my Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology within the Official Postgraduate Program in Biology (UCM) thanks to a grant for the Training of Research Personnel (FPI), which was supervised by Diego Gil and Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC). I presented my doctoral thesis for defense in January 2016, entitled “Yolk androgens as modulators of life history trade-offs in the spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor)”, obtaining the highest rate. Complementing my pre-doctoral training, I conducted two short-term research stays at the University of St Andrews (UK) under the supervision of Prof. Jeff Graves (2010 and 2011), where I was trained to assess avian malaria infections using molecular techniques.
My first postdoctoral research contract was at the University of Extremadura (UEx, Spain), where I was involved in a research project with Alfonso Marzal to study the role of introduced wetland birds in the transmission dynamics of malarial parasites in local bird communities. During this postdoctoral period, I have given talks in training courses, highlighting my high involvement at the MuEuCAP training course (EU Erasmus+ programme) to support the modernisation, accessibility, and internationalisation of environmental protection in Myanmar’s higher education sector. Before the UEx contract ended, I was able to secure a competitive postdoctoral fellowship (Juan de la Cierva – formación) to work with Jesús Martínez-Padilla at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE-CSIC) (2019-2021) on the impact of prenatal environmental conditions on the evolutionary dynamics of phenotypes in wild birds.
I joined the Department of Zoology at the University of Granada in 2021 as a teaching assistant to teach Ethology and Zoology for the next 6 months, and I subsequently obtained a postdoctoral researcher contract for scientific excellence at the Institute for Game and Wildlife Research (IREC-CSIC) under the Plan Propio de I+D+i of the UCLM. In this project, we investigated the effects of two of the main families of yolk compounds (androgens and antioxidants) on key aspects of offspring performance and physiological traits. Finally, the European Commission granted me a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship to join the Department of Biology at the University of Turku (UTU, Finland) in September 2023. Project: 101063149 — MATHORMAL — HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01.
Regarding my publications you can find the titles and links on the following website:
https://jaimemurielredondo.wixsite.com/ecophysiolpathogens/publications