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My research focuses on the ecology and evolution of bird symbionts using molecular and genomic approaches.

I completed my PhD at the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC), where I studied the eco-evolutionary processes underlying host-shift speciation in highly host-specific symbionts, focusing on bird feather mites.

I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship, and I have been a Research Affiliate there since 2017. My postdoctoral research addressed fundamental yet poorly understood evolutionary processes in host-symbiont systems, particularly in avian lice, including the roles of microbiomes, hybridization, and genomic introgression.

I am currently developing a new research line on climate-driven local genomic adaptation in obligate symbionts (GENCLIMLICE), integrating genomic, environmental, experimental, and macroecological data within a conservation genomics framework.

I serve as Red List Coordinator for the IUCN SSC Parasite Specialist Group.