Our team

We are currently focussing on the genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic and proteomic study of the male germinal cell line and the mature spermatozoa with the aims of uncovering the fundamental mechanisms needed for male fertility and identifying the molecular causes of infertility. Current and past research lines together with some selected representative publications are listed below.

Sperm cell proteome characterization and function

• de la Iglesia A, Jodar M, Oliva R, Castillo J. Insights into the sperm chromatin and implications for male infertility from a protein perspective. WIREs Mech Dis. 2023 Mar;15(2):e1588
• Barrachina F, Battistone MA, Castillo J, Mallofré C, Jodar M, Breton S, Oliva R. Sperm acquire epididymis-derived proteins through epididymosomes. Hum Reprod. 2022; 37:651-668.
• Castillo J, Bogle OA, Jodar M, Torabi F, Delgado-Dueñas D, Estanyol JM, Ballescà JL, Miller D, Oliva R. Proteomic changes in human sperm during sequential in vitro capacitation and acrosome reaction. Frontiers in Cell and Develop Biology. 2019. 20;7:295.
• Barrachina F, Jodar M, Delgado-Dueñas D, Soler-Ventura A, Estanyol JM, Mallofré C, Ballesca JL, Oliva R. Stable-protein Pair Analysis as A Novel Strategy to Identify Proteomic Signatures: Application To Seminal Plasma From Infertile Patients. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2019 Mar 15;18(Suppl 1):S77-S90.
• Castillo J, Jodar M, Oliva R. The contribution of human sperm proteins to the development and epigenome of the preimplantation embryo. Hum Reprod Update. 2018; 24, 535-555. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmy017.
• Jodar M, Soler-Ventura A, Oliva R. Semen proteomics and male infertility. J Proteomics. 2017 Jun 6;162:125-134.
• Torabi F, Bogle OA, Estanyol JM, Oliva R, Miller D. Zona pellucida-binding protein 2 (ZPBP2) and several proteins containing BX7B motifs in human sperm may have hyaluronic acid binding or recognition properties. Mol Hum Reprod. 2017 Dec 1;23(12):803-816.
• Codina C, Estanyol JM, Fidalgo MJ, Ballescà JL, Oliva R. Advances in sperm proteomics: best-practise methodology and clinical potential. Expert Review of Proteomics. 2015;12:255-77.
• Amaral A, Castillo J, Ramalho-Santos J, Oliva R. 2014. The combined human sperm proteome: cellular pathways and implications for basic and clinical science. Human Reproduction Update 2014;20:40-62. Download pdf.
• Castillo J, Amaral A, Oliva R. Sperm nuclear proteome and its epigenetic potential. Andrology. 2014;2:326-38.
• Amaral A, Castillo J, Estanyol JM, Ballesca JL, Ramalho-Santos J, Oliva R. Human sperm tail proteome suggests new endogenous metabolic pathways. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2013;12:330-42.
• de Mateo S, Castillo J, Estanyol JM, Ballescà JL, Oliva R. Proteomic characterization of the human sperm nucleus. Proteomics. 2011;11:2714-26

Sperm proteomic alterations in infertile males

• Castillo J, de la Iglesia A, Leiva M, Jodar M, Oliva R. Proteomics of human spermatozoa. Hum Reprod. 2023 Aug 25:dead170.
• Torra-Massana M, Jodar M, Barragán M, Soler-Ventura A, Delgado-Dueñas D, Rodríguez A, Oliva R, Vassena R. Altered mitochondrial function in sperm from patients with repetitive fertilization failure after ICSI revealed by proteomics. Andrology. 2021 9(4):1192-1204.
• Jodar M, Attardo-Parrinello C, Soler-Ventura A, Barrachina F, Delgado-Dueñas D, Cívico S, Calafell JM, Ballescà JL, Oliva R. Sperm proteomic changes associated to early embryo quality after ICSI.  Reproductive Biomedicine Online. 2020; 40(5):700-710.
• Grande G, Vincenzoni F, Mancini F, Barrachina F, Giampietro A, Castagnola M, Urbani A, Oliva R, Pontecorvi A, Milardi D. Quantitative analysis of the seminal plasma proteome in secondary hypogonadism. Journal of Clinical Medicine 2019, 8, 2128.
• Barrachina F, Jodar M, Delgado-Dueñas D, Soler-Ventura A, Estanyol JM, Mallofré C, Ballesca JL, Oliva R. Novel and conventional approaches for the analysis of quantitative proteomic data are complementary towards the identification of seminal plasma alterations in infertile patients. Molecular and Cellular Proteomics. 2018 Dec 5.
• Azpiazu R, Amaral A, Castillo J, Estanyol JM, Guimerà M, Ballescà JL,  Balasch J, Oliva R. High throughput sperm differential proteomics suggests that epigenetic alterations contribute to failed assisted reproduction. Hum Reprod. 2014;29:1225-37.
• Amaral A, Paiva C, Attardo Parrinello C, Estanyol JM, Ballescà JL, Ramalho-Santos J, Oliva R. Identification of Proteins Involved in Human Sperm Motility Using High-Throughput Differential Proteomics. J Proteome Res. 2014;13:5670-84.

Epigenetic potential of the sperm cell and chromatin changes during differentiation

• Blanco M, El Khattabi L, Gobé C, Crespo M, Coulée M, de la Iglesia A, Ialy-Radio C, Lapoujade C, Givelet M, Delessard M, Seller-Corona I, Yamaguchi K, Vernet N, Van Leeuwen F, Lermine A, Okada Y, Daveau R, Oliva R, Fouchet P, Ziyyat A, Pflieger D, Cocquet J. DOT1L regulates chromatin reorganization and gene expression during sperm differentiation. EMBO Rep. 2023 Jun 5;24(6):e56316.
• Requena J, Alvarez Palomo AB, Codina-Pascual M, Delgado-Morales R, Moran S, Esteller M, Sal M, Juan-Otero M, Boronat Barado A, Consiglio A, Addeleccia Bogle O, Wolvertang E, Ovchinnikov D, Alvarez I, Jaraquemada D, Mezquita-Pla J, Oliva R, Edel M. Global proteomic and methylome analysis in human induced pluripotent stem cells reveals overexpression of a human TLR3 affecting proper innate immune response signaling. Stem Cells, 2019 Jan 3.
• Castillo J, Jodar M, Oliva R. The contribution of human sperm proteins to the development and epigenome of the preimplantation embryo. Hum Reprod Update. 2018 May 23. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmy017.
• Castillo J, Amaral A, Azpiazu R, Vavouri T, Estanyol JM, Ballescà JL, Oliva R. Genomic and proteomic dissection and characterization of the human sperm chromatin. Mol Hum Reprod. 2014;20:1041-53
• Castillo J, Estanyol JM, Ballescà JL, Oliva R, Human sperm chromatin epigenetic potential: genomics, proteomics, and male infertility. Asian Journal of Andrology 2015;17:601-9.

Spermatozoan RNAs

• Pantano L, Jodar M, Bak M, Ballescà JL, Tommerup N, Oliva N, Vavouri T. The small RNA content of human sperm reveals pseudogene-derived piRNAs complementary to protein coding genes. RNA, 2015;21:1085-95.
• Jodar M, Kalko S, Castillo J, Ballescà JL, Oliva R. Differential RNAs in the sperm cells of asthenozoospermic patients. Human Reproduction 2012;27:1431-8.

Protamine structure, function evolution and dysfunction in infertile patients

• Soler-Ventura A, Gay M, Jodar M, Vilanova M, Castillo J, Arauz-Garofalo G, Villarreal L, Ballescà JL, Vilaseca M, Oliva R. Characterization of human sperm protamine proteoforms through a combination of top-down and bottom-up mass spectrometry approaches.  Journal of Proteome Research. 2020 19(1):221-237.
• Soler-Ventura A, Castillo J, de la Iglesia A, Jodar M, Barrachina F, Ballesca JL, Oliva R. Mammalian Sperm Protamine Extraction and Analysis: A Step-By-Step Detailed Protocol and Brief Review of Protamine Alterations. Protein Pept Lett. 2018;25(5):424-433.
• Jodar M, Oliva R. Protamine alterations in human spermatozoa. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2014;791:83-102.
• Jodar M, Oriola J, Mestre G, Castillo J, Giwercman A, Vidal-Taboada JM, Ballescà JL, Oliva R. Polymorphisms, haplotypes and mutations in the protamine 1 and 2 genes. Int J Androl. 2011;34:470-85.
• Oliva R (2006) Protamines and male infertility. Hum Reprod Update. 12:417-435.
• Oliva, R. and Dixon, G.H. (1991) Protamine genes and the histone to protamine replacement reaction. Progress in Nucleic Acids Research and Molecular Biology 40, 25-94.

Metabolism of the sperm cell

• Paiva C, Amaral A, Rodriguez M, Canyellas N, Correig X, Ballesca JL, Ramalho-Santos J, Oliva R. Identification of endogenous metabolites in human sperm cells using 1H-NMR and GC-MS. Andrology. 2015; 3:496-505.
• Amaral A, Castillo J, Estanyol JM, Ballesca JL, Ramalho-Santos J, Oliva R. Human sperm tail proteome suggests new endogenous metabolic pathways. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2013 Feb;12(2):330-42.

Genetic changes associated to male infertility

• Torra-Massana M, Cornet-Bartolomé D, Barragán M, Durban M, Ferrer-Vaquer A, Zambelli F, Rodriguez A, Oliva R, Vassena R.Novel phospholipase C zeta 1 mutations associated with fertilization failures after ICSI. Hum Reprod. 2019 Jul 26.
• Torra-Massana M, Barragán M, Bellu E, Oliva R, Rodríguez A, Vassena R. Sperm telomere length in donor samples is not related to ICSI outcome. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2018 Jan 16.
• Giacco DL, Chianese C, Sánchez-Curbelo J, Bassas L, Ruiz P, Rajmil O, Sarquella J, Vives A, Ruiz-Castañé E, Oliva R, Ars E, Krausz C. Clinical relevance of Y-linked CNV screening in male infertility: new insights based on the 8-year experience of a diagnostic genetic laboratory. Eur J Hum Genet. 2014;22:754-61.
• de Llanos M, Ballescà JL, Gázquez C, Margarit E, and Oliva R. High frequency of gr/gr chromosome Y deletions in consecutive oligospermic ICSI candidates. Human Reproduction 2005;20:216-220.