Maria Ballester Devís is a RyC researcher in IRTA’s Animal Genetics and Breeding program. His line of research, focused on the area of Immunogenetics, has as its main objective the study of the genetic determinism of immunity traits in the porcine species to improve the robustness and resistance to diseases. It is part of the European GENE-SWitCH consortium to characterize the functional architecture of the genome of monogastric species and participates in various contracts with the sector using the pig as a biomedical model. During her research career she has participated in 19 projects (7 international), published more than 60 scientific articles and is the co-inventor of a patent. She is currently an associate professor at the UAB.