People
Daniel J. Richter
Principal Investigator
Daniel began his scientific career as a computer programmer at the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research (now the Broad Institute). His PhD research, jointly supervised by Nicole King and Michael Eisen at the University of California, Berkeley, focused on culturing and sequencing new species of choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals, in order to reconstruct the evolution of gene content in the lineage leading to animals. His postdoctoral research, beginning at the Roscoff Marine Station, and continuing at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology, investigated the global-scale biogeography and gene expression of marine protists. Daniel loves to spend time outdoors, especially if it involves bouldering.
Cristiana Sigona
Lab Manager
Cristiana completed her Master's and PhD degrees at the University of Pisa, Italy, where her research focused on the biology and ecology of ciliates and their bacterial endosymbionts, and included research stays at the University of Yamaguchi, Japan and Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. In her spare time, Cristiana enjoys practicing Japanese archery (which is also a great way to train for the concentration necessary to perform single-cell isolation techniques).
Margarita Skamnelou
PhD Student
As an undergraduate, Margarita studied biology at the University of Patras (Greece). She pursued her Master’s degree in biomedicine at the same university, specializing in regenerative medicine and stem cells. Her research focused on elucidating the mechanisms responsible for multiciliated cell differentiation. Aiming to follow her passion for evolutionary biology, she joined the BEAP Lab on our scientific journey to reveal the unknown biology of the most abundant marine microbial eukaryotes. In her free time, she enjoys feeding giraffes and drinking cold coffee or "Freddo" (as a traditional Greek person should!).
Àlex Gàlvez i Morante
PhD Student
Àlex carried out his bachelor's degree in Biotechnology at the University of Barcelona. He obtained his Master’s degree in Genetics and Genomics at the same university, and became a member of the BEAP Lab during his Master's thesis, where he focused his research on testing methods for ancestral gene content reconstruction. At the moment, he is taking part in our project to reveal the unknown biology of the most abundant marine microbial eukaryotes. Outside of the scientific world, Àlex enjoys spending time surrounded by friends and practicing sports.
Daryna Zavadska
PhD Student
Daryna finished her bachelor's degree at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in Ukraine. There she worked in the Phycology lab on the evolution of meiotic genes in green algae. During her studies she did internships in research groups at the University of Konstanz, WWU Munster and in the BIOCEV Center, investigating various aspects of protist biology and evolution. She received a Master's degree in Omics Data Analysis from the University of Vic. Her passions are protist biodiversity, endosymbioses and eukaryogenesis. Daryna likes rock music and sci-fi.
Maria Carlos Oliveira
Lab Technician
Maria studied Biochemistry at the University of Aveiro and specialized in Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials during her Master's thesis at the MERLN Institute, in The Netherlands. She later worked in Politecnico di Milano producing organ-on-chips to mimic heart disease. At the moment, she is our Lab Technician aiming to help the lab in revealing the unknown biology of the most abundant marine microbial eukaryotes. Outside the lab, Maria is also interested in science visualization to help scientists communicate better their results (visit her web site here!). She is also always ready to play board games with friends or hiking while taking photos.
Adrià Auladell
Postdoctoral Researcher
Adrià received a microbiology degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, followed by a bioinformatics Master’s at Pompeu Fabra University. Afterwards, he pursued a PhD focused in the seasonality of marine prokaryotes through omics approaches at the Marine Sciences Institute (ICM), also in Barcelona. At the moment, he is creating a pipeline to study how the expression of relevant biogeochemical genes changes using metatranscriptomics. Outside the academic world, he enjoys climbing, having a drink with friends and reading books.
Miguel Méndez Sandín
Beatriu de Pinós Postdoctoral Fellow
Miguel's curiosity for protists started during his PhD thesis at the Biological Station of Roscoff (France). Under the supervision of Fabrice Not, he explored the molecular diversity and evolution of Radiolaria. Then, he carried out a postdoctoral project at Uppsala University (Sweden) with Fabien Burki where he explored the main biotic interactions during the early life of eukaryotes. Here at the IBE, he will explore the vast undescribed diversity of microbial eukaryotes that are only known from their short environmental DNA sequences, and unveil their role in eukaryotic evolution and ecology. Miguel enjoys rock climbing and other outdoors activities such as surfing and skiing.
Join the Lab
Master's students: we are happy to host Master's students from local universities, including Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the University of Barcelona (UB, for example, the Master's in Genetics and Genomics or Oceanography), the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), and others. Please contact Daniel if you are enrolled in a local Master's program and would be interested in conducting a research stay with us!
PhD students: please contact Daniel if you would like to discuss the possibility of applying for a Doctoral INPhINIT Fellowship from "la Caixa" Foundation, an FPU (Spain) or FI (Catalunya), or another fellowship.
Postdocs: please contact Daniel if you would like to discuss the possibility of applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Beatriu de Pinós fellowship, a "la Caixa" Junior Leader fellowship, an HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Juan de la Cierva fellowship from CSIC, or another fellowship.
For a more complete list of opportunities to join us at any career stage, please see this Google Document.
We are strongly committed to promoting equity for groups that have been historically excluded from academia. Daniel also helps to co-coordinate the Diversity Committee of IBE.
Previous Lab Members
Tanasije Rakić
Master's Student, 2022
Tanasije finished his Bachelor's degree at the University of Belgrade in Serbia. He studied Molecular Biology and Physiology at the Faculty of Biology where he had the opportunity to familiarize himself with a very broad range of biology related subjects and methods. He decided to continue his studies by pursuing the Genetics and Genomics Master’s degree at the University of Barcelona. For his Master’s thesis Tanasije has decided to join the BEAP lab and expand his knowledge of protists as well attempt to make a contribution to better understanding of the complex global marine plankton ecology. Outside of the lab Tanasije loves to spend time in the company of friends or to relax by watching TV shows, browsing various articles on the internet or playing video games.
Amàlia Morató i Piñol
Master's Student, 2022
Amàlia received her Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). During this time she performed a research stay at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics, studying the genomics of transposon evolution, and also developed an interest in marine biotechnology. She is currently in the Master's program in Oceanography at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). Amàlia enjoys learning about photography, reading books and going to concerts and music festivals.