Current members
Toni Gabaldón, Principal Investigator
ICREA Research professor, group leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC), and associate professor at the UPF. He leads the comparative genomics groups. His main research interests are in the fields of genomics and evolution with significant contributions to the understanding of how genes, pathways, biological organisms and communities evolve and perform their functions.
Ester Saus, Research Assistant
My research is based on implementing new high-throughput sequencing strategies, specially in the transcriptomics field, to characterize fungal pathogens species, elucidate the secondary structure of RNAs, and to study the evolution of lncRNAs across related species.
Ewa Ksiezopolska, Postdoctoral Researcher
Interested in the evolution of antifungal resistance.
Hrant Hovhannisyan, Postdoctoral Researcher
The main goal of my PhD project is to shed light on host-pathogen interactions between humans and different Candida species and investigate mechanisms of pathogenicity emergence in hybrid yeasts using methods of comparative transcriptomics.
Jesse Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher
I am working on a few projects which primarily involve metagenomics, prediction of the secondary structure of long non-coding RNAs, and analyses of next generation sequencing data.
Marina Marcet-Houben, Research Engineer
I use phylogenomics and comparative genomics tools in order to study how different organisms have evolved. I am specially interested in fungal species and have worked on topics related to horizontal gene transfer, whole genome duplication and hybridization.
Uciel Chorostecki, Postdoctoral Researcher
Interested in evolution of lncRNAs. My research is focused in the study of lncRNAs structures from different species.
Miquel Àngel Schikora, PREDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Bioinformatician using genomics to tackle biomedical challenges, such as the emergence of drug resistance in microbes.
Olfat Khannous, BIOINFORMATICIAN
Biotechnologist with expertise in Bioinformatics and passionate of scientific diffusion. Currenlty working in the development and implementation of computational tools for metagenomics in a diagnostic context. Highly interested in Genomics and Biomedical research in general.
Valentina del Olmo, Postdoctoral Researcher
Trained in genetics and the study of transcription regulatory networks in fungal pathogens. I am now interested in studying the genome of fungal hybrids through comparative genomics from an evolutionary perspective.
Diego Fuentes, Bioinformatician
I am a geneticist with a bioinformatic background (Python, Shell and R). I am interested into machine learning, big data analysis, database management, NGS pipelines and statistical analysis.
Guifré Torruella, Postdoctoral researcher
As an evolutionary protistologist, my goal is to improve our knowledge on the origin & early eukaryote evolution, from its last common ancestor to our current biodiversity. My research involves sampling and culturing protists, sequencing and analysing their transcriptomes and genomes to tackle phylogenetic and comparative genomics questions.
Ismael Collado Cala, Student
Student of Web Applications Development – BioInformatics (CFGS). Currently graduated in Multiplatform application development. Highly interested in Big Data and Data Analysis.
Juan Carlos Núñez Rodríguez, Predoctoral Researcher
My interests are focused on studying which traits determine the most important phenotypic changes in Candida spp. Such as pathogenicity, adherence, stress response or studying the processes of acquiring resistance to antifungal drugs.
Andrés Garisoain Zafra, Student
Future scientist and bioinformatician. Passionate about science and technology with the purpose of doing a PhD.
Madison Snyder, Undergraduate student
Swarthmore College Biology graduate interested in genetics and human health research. Currently interested in studying biomarkers for colorectal cancer
Matteo Schiavinato, Postdoctoral Researcher
I am a postdoctoral researcher with a strong interest for the evolution
of hybrid genomes. I am specifically interested in the crosstalk
between the two subgenomes of a hybrid, and in finding new ways to
analyse them.
Saptashwa Datta, Masters student
I am an experimental biologist by training who also wants to dabble a little in the
engineering and computational side of things. Currently my research over here is
focused on the oral microbiome, transcriptomics and comparative genomics
of fungi. I am interested in working in the intersection of biology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and computational biology.
Martina Cardinali, Bioinformatician
I am a Bioinformatician with a great interest in genomics, NGS data analysis, and biomedical research. My current research focuses on studying the human microbiome in health and disease in order to identify condition-specific patterns.
Javier Maravall, Master student
I graduated in both mathematics and philosophy, and while currently acquiring a background in biology, I’m interested to learn how mathematical techniques can be applied in comparative genomics, particularly in the context of co-ocurrence networks.
Moisès Bernabeu, Master student
I am interested in unravelling the events that occurred in the transition from the prokaryotic to eukaryotic cell. Using phylogenomic data sets we search for the distances between species groups which are interesting for these events. This work is complemented by the study of the distribution of these branches’ lengths.
Saioa Manzano, PREDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Biochemist and Computational Biologist very interested in metagenomics and evolutionary biology. I am currently working on characterizing the relative timing of the process of eukaryogenesis.
Alicia Benavente García, Laboratory technician
I am a Laboratory Technician interested in microbiology and genomics, as well as giving support to the group and their members in their projects and careers.
Dániel Májer, Undergraduate Student
Student of Bioinformatics and Web Application Development (HTC). Passionate about Data efficiency and Data analytics.
Past members
Cinta Pegueroles, Research Engineer
Irene Julca, Postdoctoral Researcher
Laia Carreté, Postdoctoral Researcher
Miguel Naranjo-Ortiz, Predoctoral Researcher
Pedro González
Rosa Fernández, Postdoctoral Researcher
Susana Iraola Guzmán, Research Assistant
Verónica Mixão, Predoctoral Researcher
Manu Molina, Research Engineer
Leszek Pryszcz, PhD student
Elizabeth Gabriela Aguileta Estrada, Postdoctoral Researcher
Damien De Vienne, Postdoctoral Researcher
Filipe Garrett Vieira, Postdoctoral Researcher
Jaime Huerta Cepas, Postdoctoral Researcher
Antonios Alexandros Pittis, Postdoctoral Researcher
Ernst Thuer, Predoctoral Researcher
Salvador Jesus Capella Gutierrez, Postdoctoral Researcher
Luis Adolfo Bejarano Ardura, Research Assistant
Maxime Borry, Research Assistant
Javier Díez Pérez, Research Assistant
Diego Javier Kormes, Research Assistant
José Luis Rodríguez Alés, Research Assistant
Fran Supek, Postdoctoral Researcher
Elena Cabello Yeves, Master Student
Geovanny Risco, Undergraduate Student
Joel Moro, Master Student
Jerónimo Parra Parra, Master Student
Anna Vlasova, Bioinformatician
Giacomo Mutti, Master Student
Maria Artigues, Undergraduate Student
Ana Álvarez, Master Student
Mercedes Castro, Undergraduate student
Ortansa Raluca Ghita, Undergraduate student
Ömer Ege Kara, Undergraduate student
Past visitors
Matteo Schiavinato
Enric Méndez Rabella, Student
Marta Álvarez Presas, UB
Marcello Benevelli
