During my bachelor’s studies in Biotechnology at Universidad de Zaragoza I developed a particular interest in the ecological aspects of microbial diversity. For this reason, in my bachelor thesis I aimed to understand why two soil microbial communities had a different growth promotion effect on the legume species Lotus japonicus and Lotus burttii. After my bachelor, I moved to Vienna to study Microbial Ecology at Univ. of Vienna, where I prioritised my formation in bioinformatics and metagenomics. For my master thesis I looked at the differences between microbial communities sampled from hyper-saline and from arid environments. I used a combined approach of comparative metagenomics and fluorescent microscopy to study how closely related bacteria had evolved to cope with different extreme conditions.

During my PhD at PopGen Vienna, I will look at the evolutionary dynamics of the Drosophila gut microbiome. I will leverage D. simulans populations evolved artificially in two temperature regimes to study how gut-associated bacteria adapt to the host’s temperature.