Laura Najera-Cortazar

I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the discovery of biodiversity, and the study of wildlife populations and conservation. My fields are mainly molecular evolution, conservation genomics, disease ecology, and systematics. I got a degree in Biology in the University of Guadalajara (Mexico) working with carnivore ecology; and a MSc in Use, Management and Preservation of Natural resources working with bats from isolated arid zones (Mexico). I obtained my PhD in the University of Leeds (UK) investigating the species boundaries and population structure of bats and their ectoparasites in Mexico using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and DNA barcoding. During my postdoc at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) I worked elucidating the lineage composition of blood parasites in birds using NGS techniques. At present, I joined the BIOPOLIS-CIBIO working under the framework of the project "Biodiversity Genomics Europe"(BGE), performing DNA barcoding and metabarcoding.