Congrats to Catarina Branco for the «Graduate Student Excellence Award» by the SMBE 2021!!

Catarina Branco was awarded with “Graduate Student Excellence Award” by SMBE 2021. To appear in https://www.smbe.org/smbe/AWARDS/SMBEGraduateStudentExcellenceAwards.aspx Congrats Catarina!!

https://www.farodevigo.es/gran-vigo/2021/08/21/universidad-vigo-mejores-promesas-mundo-56401055.html

ProtASR2: Ancestral reconstruction of protein sequences accounting for folding stability

We developed a new version of our program «ProtASR» to infer ancestral sequences of proteins accounting for the protein folding stability. A methodology that produces more realistic ancestral sequences respect to those obtained using traditional empirical substitution models. This study was done in collaboration with Ugo Bastolla (Center for Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa). Just published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/2041-210X.13341

The Early Peopling of the Philippines based on mtDNA

We investigated the peopling of the Philippines by modern humans, including the estimation of evolutionary parameters and migration patterns such as migration corridors connecting the continent with the archipelago and the presence of long-distance dispersal. This study was done in collaboration with the lab of Antonio González-Martín (University Complutense of Madrid). Just published in Scientific Reports,

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61793-7

Investigated migration corridors towards the Philippines.