As an evolutionary biologist I am interested in how genomes differ between organisms: how do these differences arise and how are they maintained? During my PhD, I developed two pieces of software ---  BlobTools and KinFin --- which tackle relevant problems in comparative genomics projects.I am passionate about reproducible research and enjoy developing tools that make research easier: that way we all have more time to work on harder problems. 

In my current position in the Lohse Lab, I am generating high-quality genome assemblies of European butterflies using long and short-read data to answer questions about gene family evolution and their effect on speciation.

My diploma thesis was focussed on the phylogenetic relationships of ichtyoparasitic nematodes of the genus Anguillicola, supervised by Horst Taraschewski (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany) and Mark Blaxter (University of Edinburgh, UK).

Afterwards, I worked for three years as a research scientist at the Spanish Bank of Algae --- a culture collection of photosynthetic microorganisms --- located at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain). 

I eventually returned to Edinburgh to do a PhD project ("Joint scholarship from the James Hutton Institute and the University of Edinburgh") on the evolutionary genomics of plant-parasitic nematodes, supervised by Vivian Blok (James Hutton Institute, UK) and Mark Blaxter. 

While I was writing my thesis, I worked as a post-graduate researcher ("Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support fund") with Laura Ross on the genomics of paternal genome elimination in mealybugs. 

Currently, I am employed as an ERC post-doctoral research assistant in the Lohse Lab where I research the genomic aspects of speciation in European butterflies.