Lucía Casanova Adán

I am a second-year PhD candidate in the PhD Program in Advances and New Strategies in Forensic Sciences at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC).

I carried out my first research project, titled “Characterization of the Genetic Diversity of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus in Galicia Using Third-Generation Sequencing Technologies”, as part of my Bachelor’s Thesis degree in Biology at USC. During this project, I had my first experience with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing, which sparked my interest in genetics. This led me to further specialize through the Master's program in Genomics and Genetics (USC). During this time, I completed both my academic internship and Master’s Thesis at the Forensic Genetics Unit of the “Luís Concheiro” Institute of Forensic Sciences (INCIFOR), where I had the opportunity to continue working through a 7 month postgraduate fellowship.

At INCIFOR, I began exploring the application of ONT sequencing technologies within the field of forensic genetics, a focus that now defines my doctoral research thanks to a predoctoral contract funded by the Fundación Caixa Rural–Tomás Notario Vacas.

Currently, I am undertaking a three-month predoctoral research internship at the Conservation Genetics Group at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (R(D)SVS) to gain expertise in species-level identification using ONT sequencing data. The goal is to apply this knowledge to my PhD project, which centres on food safety, and to help implement a potential species identification workflow at the INCIFOR.