Alfonso Balmori de la Puente

I am Alfonso, a biologist interested in the study of the evolutionary, genetic and ecological mechanisms that influence the conservation of animal species and populations.

I have been working in the group of Dr. Jose Castresana (Institute of Evolutionary Biology UPF-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain) during the PhD and first postdoc, using an integrative toolkit that includes laboratory protocols to prepare genomic libraries of non-invasive samples of mammals; as well as bioinformatic tools to asses population structure, estimate divergence times using coalescent models and perform individual monitoring through relatedness and inbreeding coefficients.

During my next postdoc, I will be joining the group of Dr. Rui Faria for one year. With Rui, I am planning to expand my research areas and learn about genomics of adaptation, chromosome inversions to understand the speciation processes and possibly the study of host-parasite interactions, in different groups of taxa of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as contribute with my experience in the progress of the group.

In my free time, I like doing sports (in particular football, tennis and running), going to the country side and try local food.