Alberto Gómez-Carballa
Geneticist
“We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct…”
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I obtained my B.Sc. in Biology at University of Vigo (Spain) and then I have completed my master degree in Biotechnological Engineering at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). I completed my PhD at the same university with the dissertation of my thesis entitled “Estudio de los patrones de variabilidad genética humana mitochondrial en diferentes modelos poblacionales europeos” (being Prof. Antonio Salas my supervisor), studying the variation at the mitochondrial DNA in different European populations from a phylogeographic perspective. I have acquired a strong background in population genetics through this time, since my professional experience started in 2007 at Instituto de Ciencias Forenses (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain) working in population and forensic genetics. In this period of time, I became familiar with forensic laboratory procedures and with the analysis of compromised DNA samples.
In 2012, I changed my research focus to pediatrics and infectious diseases and moved to the Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias (IDIS) de Santiago de Compostela, located in the Hospital Clínico Universitario. After this point, I was involved in several national as well as European research projects, mainly focused on the host genetic susceptibility and transcriptomic expression changes related to infection and other pathologies, like rare disease and food allergy, in pediatrics. GenPoB scientific contacts with other research groups and its multidisciplinary nature, has allowed me to collaborate with some of the best researchers in the field of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. This have helped me to improve my knowledge and skills not only in laboratory procedures but also in data analysis. In this way, I have gained a great deal of experience in sequencing and genotyping methods related to RNA and DNA working and, in addition, I was trained in the analysis of transcriptomics data from different technologies like pPCR, nCounter (Nanostring), microarrays and RNA-seq (NGS) through the use of different software and R packages.
Currently, my main research interests lie in the study of the diseases affecting the childhood from the ‘omic’ perspective, through the use of the latest technologies and analytical methods in the field of genetics and transcriptomics. Through the ‘omic’ approach one can find biomarkers and construct predictive models of the complex pathogen-host system interactions which finally will led to the development of multi-omic signatures able to predict the disease outcome or susceptibility, identify the molecular mechanisms underlying these response and search of potential targets for treatment and management of the diseases in pediatrics.