Dr. Sofia Ortega

Biography

Dr. Sofia Ortega originally from Honduras, completed her Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences at Zamorano Agricultural University in 2003. She managed a bull stud in Honduras for five years before completing her Master of Sciences in Animal Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile from 2009 to 2011, where she studied the effects of Kappa-Casein genotypes on milk and cheese production in Montbeliarde-Holstein cattle. Ortega earned her Ph.D. in Animal Molecular Cellular Biology from the University of Florida from 2012 to 2016, focusing on the genetic control of reproduction and embryonic development in dairy cattle. In 2017, she joined the University of Missouri as a postdoctoral fellow, studying the mechanisms involved in pregnancy establishment in cattle using systems biology and genetic engineering approaches. She continued at the University of Missouri from 2019 to 2022 as an Assistant Professor of Reproductive Physiology, where she studied male influences on pregnancy establishment. In August 2022, Dr. Ortega was recruited by the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an Assistant Professor of Reproductive Physiology, continuing her line of research. Her program focuses on the genetic regulation of fertility, with an emphasis on pre-implantation embryonic development and placentation in bovines, utilizing novel genomic approaches to gene editing. Dr. Ortega aims to identify key variants and mechanisms associated with pregnancy establishment, using this information to improve reproductive genetic selection and fertility in cattle.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards