Aurora Díaz graduated in Biochemistry with a Distinction with Honors. She obtained the European PhD in Genetic Breeding and Engineering at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). During that time, she participated in the Genetic Breeding Program of Olive Tree from the University of Córdoba and in the European Project “Olive-Track”. As part of that project, she completed a predoctoral stay at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (Cambridge, UK), which laid the foundations for future collaborations, the first being a postdoctoral research experience of 1 year, working on genetics and molecular biology in cereals. As a continuation, she was hosted by Dr. Laurie's group at the John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK) for extending her studies on cereal genetics, specifically elucidating the underlying mechanism that explains the insensitivity to photoperiod of some wheat varieties. Returning to Spain, she gained a 3-year JAE-Doc contract to study the genetic control of domestication and traits of agronomic interest in melon at the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (CSIC, Valencia).
Currently, she holds a tenure as Agricultural Researcher in the Horticulture Department at Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA) and AgriFood Institute of Aragon (IA2), Spain. She is currently leading two projects aimed at the biofortification of lettuce as a way of improving its nutritional value, using analytical, genetic, genomic and biotechnological tools.
