Cristina Casto Rebollo

Visiting PhD student

Continued with her PhD at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia 

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Profile picture Cristina Rebollo

 

 Research at the Highlander Lab

My PhD research focuses on unravelling the genetic background of the environmental variance of litter size in divergently selected rabbit lines for high and low environmental variance and understanding its effects on the gut microbiome.

Goals:

  • Identify candidate genes for the environmental variance and the animal resilience
  • Display bacteria, genes and metabolites from the gut that could be modulating the environmental variance and the animal resilience
  • Understand the relationship between animal resilience and the environmental variance  
  • Validate my studies with computer simulations of genomic, metagenomic, and phenotypic data (in collaboration with the HighlanderLab)

 Background

I studied Biotechnology in Seville before undertaking an MSc in Animal Breeding and Reproduction Biotechnology at the Universitat Politècnica de València, where I started a PhD in Animal Breeding and Genetics in 2018, under the supervision of Noelia Ibáñez-Escriche and Maria-Jose Argente.

I am specifically interested in:

  • Animal Genetics
  • Statistical methodologies                                                                  
  • Machine learning
  • Develop R package for Bayesian Analysis

Programming language and software:

  • Unix/Linux                                                         
  • R & RStudio
  • Python

Hobbies and personal interests

I play rugby in the Rugby Turia. Rugby is not only a sport, but also a philosophy of life because it always promoting values like integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline, and respect.

I love hiking because all effort during the travel has a wonderful reward when you reach the top to see amazing views.

I think that all scientific knowledge must be shared with all people. Science is not only for Scientists and English-speaking people. I’m working on a Twitter account in Spanish (@GenetistaA) to disseminate science related to animal breeding and genetics. Moreover, I want to write a short book about my thesis to reach people with no scientific knowledge, as my parents.