I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of biodiversity, particularly the roles of chromosomes and sex in this process. Currently, I'm a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the College of Life Sciences of Southwest University (Chongqing, China - PDE CNPq). My current project is on the evolutionary genomics of female heterogametic sex chromosome systems, combining chromosome-level genome assembly, comparative genomics, and cytogenetics. I've been studying the karyotypes and genomes of several species, primarily documenting the simple and multiple sex chromosomes of wild populations in the Neotropical and Oriental biogeographic zones, and exploring the content of sex chromosomes through cytogenomics. I'm also working on the chromosome-level assembly of reptile and fish genomes, with a particular focus on repetitive content, as part of the Australian Amphibian and Reptile Genomics Initiative (AusARG), in association with the University of Canberra, in collaboration with the Distinguished Prof. Dr. Arthur Georges and Prof. Dr. Tariq Ezaz.

Contact: francisco.sassi@hotmail.com | francisco.sassi@canberra.edu.au