Federico’s current research is focused on human genetic diversity and ancient DNA through which he seeks to uncover the hallmarks left by evolution on genes and genomes. He is particularly interested in the intersection between long and short-term evolutionary processes (species evolution and population diversity) to better understand Biology and human disease.
Current Research
Federico works with ancient human DNA and African genomes to increase our understanding of the high genetic diversity that exists in Africa. The aim is to use this knowledge to better understand human genomes and disentangle hidden signals to predict disease-associations or identify adaptive processes.
Previous Experience
Federico completed his PhD in the Protein Design Group of Prof. Valencia at the Spanish National Biotechnology Centre and since then has completed several post-docs: at the National Museum of Natural History with Prof. Zardoya, at Universidad de Vigo with Prof. Posada and at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, back with his PhD supervisor.
During these years he has worked in many diverse areas, with a common aim of trying to answer biological questions from an evolutionary perspective and relying on computational analyses. Federico’s interests in Biology are broad. He is particularly interested in understanding the evolution of genomes and disentangling the signatures left in them by natural selection, either setting the focus on protein-coding genes, whole chromosomes or transposable elements. Since he moved into the population-genetics field, he has developed a particular interest in understanding how short-term evolutionary processes (variation within populations) translate into long-term evolution (species divergence).