Academic History / Research Internships

My postdoctoral research, under the leadership of M. Cristina Damborenea, was focussed on a particular group of Temnocephalans (Temnocephala genus), symbionts specific to freshwater invertebrates and vertebrates and postulated to have originated in the Neotropics. In this study, I am exploring the transition of the free-living strategies to strict parasitism. I am interested in the origin of parasitism in the evolutionary history of the plathelminths and their subsequent effects on specific hosts.

My PhD research project, supervised by Gerardo Pérez-Ponce de León, was focused on parametric biogeographical and cophylogenetical approaches using a freshwater fish digenean genus Margotrema, which are specialist helminth parasites of freshwater fishes of the subafamily Goodeinae (Cyprinodontiformes: Goodeidae) endemic to central Mexico, as a biological model system.  Central Mexico is a region of major biogeographical interest as it represents a transition zone (Mexican Transvolcanic Belt) between the Nearctic and the Neotropics.

Research Internships during my PhD:

• March – July 2012. Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Lab led by Dr. Julio Rozas, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.

            Web http://www.ub.edu/molevol/julio/ 

•  Sep. 2010. Morphometrics and Phylogenetics Lab led by Dr. Efrain de Luna, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, México.

            Web http://edeluna-visitantes.blogspot.com.ar/2010/09/andres-martinez-aquino.html