Exploring how the placenta connects mother and fetus, and how pregnancy shapes lifelong health, through physiology, metabolism and developmental biology.
Department of Physiology, School of MedicineUniversidad Autónoma de MadridInstituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Sols-MorrealeCSIC-UAM
Why the placenta?
For nine months, this temporary organ does the work of almost every organ the fetus has yet to develop, all at once.
We see and study pregnancy as a whole: mother, placenta and fetus, always together. Like matryoshkas, the Russian nesting dolls carved from a single block of wood and a traditional symbol of motherhood and fertility, each one sits inside the other and shapes the next.
Research
Pregnancy is a conversation between organs. We follow that conversation from the mother's own early life, through the placenta, to the long-term health of her offspring, with a special interest in the signalling pathways that control metabolism. We combine in vivo models and physiology with state-of-the-art approaches such as proteomics and sequencing. Much of our work relies on mouse models, always under approval from our institutional ethics committees and following the 3Rs principles: Replace, Reduce and Refine (Transparency Agreement on the use of animals in research). Our main lines of work include:
Does a mother's metabolism early in life shape her future pregnancies?
Metabolic disease early in life, such as overnutrition in infancy or obesogenic diets, can leave a lasting imprint on the body. Using animal models, we study how this imprint alters metabolic organs and, later in life, the formation and function of the placenta when these females become pregnant.
How does the mother's body adapt to pregnancy and lactation?
Pregnancy remodels virtually every organ in the mother's body to support the growing fetus. We investigate how these adaptations are orchestrated, how the placenta takes part, and what happens to maternal health when they fail.
Can we protect mother and offspring during pregnancy?
We test ways to protect mother and fetus: drugs such as sildenafil citrate, nutritional approaches like the Mediterranean diet and sustainable insect-based nutraceuticals (GREEN-MED project), beneficial gut bacteria such as Bifidobacterium breve, and stress-reduction programmes such as mindfulness during pregnancy.
People
A young, growing group at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Sols-Morreale (IIBM, CSIC-UAM).
Jorge trained as a veterinarian and did his PhD at the Complutense University of Madrid, studying fetal growth restriction. In 2015 he joined Prof. Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri's lab at the Centre for Trophoblast Research, University of Cambridge, as a visiting PhD student. He then stayed on as a postdoc, funded first by a Royal Society Newton International Fellowship (2018–2020) and then by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020–2024). In Cambridge he worked on many aspects of placental biology: how the imprinted gene Igf2 lets the placenta control the mother's metabolism, PI3K signalling and nutrient supply to the fetus, placental vascular growth, and the influence of the maternal gut microbiota.
In 2024 he returned to Madrid to start MADRE Lab through the César Nombela Talent Attraction Programme. He sits on the Executive Council of the European DOHaD Society, where he coordinates communications, and is a proud FIRBee: an alumnus of the Frontiers in Reproduction course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole (2018), where he has since returned as an invited speaker.
Mentoring is one of the parts of the job he enjoys most. Over the years he has mentored more than 15 early-career researchers in Cambridge and Madrid, from undergraduate and master's students to PhD students and postdocs.
Awards
Students
AlumniNuria Barba Martínez · Cristina Lozano del Valle (UAM, 2026) · Estíbaliz Roldán Gómez-Calcerrada · Sandra Martín Romo (UAM, 2025) · and more than 12 students mentored at the University of Cambridge
Publications
Need access to a paper? Don't hesitate to reach out.
Highlighted in Science and Nature Reviews Endocrinology.
Outreach
What happens in the womb matters to everyone. We write for the public, talk to the media and bring the placenta into schools.
Writing for the public
TRPV2, un gen inesperado en el desarrollo de la placentaGenotipia · with Katrien De Clercq and Vicente Pérez-García
La vida en el vientre materno puede dejar una huella duradera en la salud adultaThe Conversation · republished in El Debate and Infobae
La batalla entre sexos se libra en el ring de la placentaThe Conversation · Finalist, Premio Luis Felipe Torrente de Divulgación (Fundación Lilly)
In the media
Also covered by Onda Cero (interview), La Razón, SINC and more than 30 outlets.
In schools and universities
Science Week activities for primary school pupils in Cambridge and hands-on workshops for undergraduates in Madrid.
News
Jorge was part of the organising committee of the European DOHaD Society Conference, with more than 180 attendees.
Our latest work covers mindfulness during pregnancy (Placenta), the Mediterranean diet and placental lipids (Scientific Reports), the TRPV2 channel (Nature Communications) and IRS2 in placental development (Stem Cell Reports).
Our national project on eco-friendly nutraceuticals for maternal health and embryonic development has been funded by the Spanish Research Agency.
Join us
We are always looking for motivated people who want to understand how life before birth shapes health for a lifetime. If our questions excite you, write to us with your CV and a few lines about your interests.
Contact
jorge.lopeztello@uam.es preferred
Also: jl898@cam.ac.uk
Department of Physiology
School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
C/ Arzobispo Morcillo 4, 28029 Madrid, Spain