The Spanish Society of Genetics (SEG) has awarded the 2025 National Genetics Awards to Professor Amparo Latorre Castillo, in the Basic Genetics category, and to Miguel Torres, a researcher at the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), in the Applied Genetics category. These awards recognise research careers that have made a decisive contribution to the advancement of genetic knowledge in Spain.

 

Amparo Latorre Castillo is Professor of Genetics at the University of Valencia and has spent her research career at the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (ICBiBe) and the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio, UV-CSIC). She has also conducted research at the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (FISABIO) and at the CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBEResp). Her research has focused, on the one hand, on mitochondrial DNA variability and its application in phylogenetic analysis and, on the other, on the symbiosis between bacteria and eukaryotes, with key contributions to comparative genomics, genome evolution, insect gut microbiota and the human microbiome. She has published more than 250 scientific articles with over 15,000 citations.

 

She has been a visiting professor at universities such as the University of California (Irvine and Davis) and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. She has held positions of responsibility in scientific committees, such as the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and the National Institute of Ecology in Mexico, in expert committees such as the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, and in national and international evaluation agencies. At the University of Valencia, she has been director of the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology and also vice-dean and secretary of the Faculty of Biological Sciences.

 

Miguel Torres is a senior researcher and coordinator of the Cardiovascular Regeneration Programme at the CNIC. His career has focused on developmental genetics and regeneration, with a special emphasis on organ formation and repair, as well as cellular quality control mechanisms. After training at the Complutense University of Madrid and the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, he founded his own research group at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB) before moving to the CNIC. His work has provided innovative models of tissue regeneration and quality, and he is a pioneer in the discovery of endogenous cell competition in vertebrates. He is a member of EMBO and ACAL, and has published more than 130 scientific articles with nearly 14,000 citations.

 

The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday 8 July at 7.30 p.m. in Cartagena, during the opening ceremony of the 44th Congress of the Spanish Society of Genetics (SEG2025). The event will be attended by Isabel Durán, representing the Pryconsa Foundation, the sponsor of the awards. The ceremony can also be followed live on the SEG's YouTube channel: https://png2025.segenetica.es

 

Media contact:

Spanish Society of Genetics

Email: comunicacion@segenetica.es

Telephone: 647757059

https://www.segenetica.es/