David Castellano

I'm an evolutionary biologist who uses computers to extract knowledge from DNA sequences. Happily married, dad of two girls and a dachshund. Big fan of walking in the woods, coffee, science fiction and the philosophy of science. Weak agnostic. Personality type: Advocate (INFJ-A) #firstgenacademic

I study how mutations arise, spread, and shape life—focusing on humans, chimpanzees, flies, and even cancer genomes. Using DNA sequence analysis and mathematical modeling, I explore why mutation rates vary across genomes and species.

I also enjoy thinking and writing about the philosophy of science, perspectival realism, and evolutionary cosmology, which I share in my Substack essays.

Scientific interests —

I am a part-time lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, teaching biostatistics and bioinformatics, and a senior scientist working remotely for Ryan Gutenkunst's group at the University of Arizona, developing statistical methods to estimate the distribution of fitness effects from DNA diversity patterns.

My research focuses on analysing population genomic and functional molecular data to answer pertinent questions in evolutionary biology and, more recently, cancer evolution. My research revolves around three main aspects of molecular evolution:

1. the study of the effects of mutations within and across species and their relationship to the mutation spectrum,

2. the impact of limited recombination on the efficiency of natural selection and patterns of DNA diversity, and

3. the description of mutation rate patterns along a genome and their major molecular determinants.

I have worked with human DNA diversity data, but also with genome sequences from chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit flies or mitochondrial genomes. After my first postdoc in Denmark with Kasper Munch, I continued my research career at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona with a Marie Curie grant, working on the same aspects but using thousands of genomes from human tumours.

My Links

Here you will find links to my academic research, peer review activity and social media.

  1. Calendly.
  2. Bluesky.
  3. Substack.
  4. Mastodon.
  5. Orcid number.
  6. ResearchGate.
  7. Google scholar.

#TAGC24

Deleterious mutation symposium

Vimeo link. I started at 1h 27min!

My Recorded Talks

Here you will find my talk exploring the relationship between mutations' fitness effects and rate.

  1. #Probgen22 - Oxford. Minute 38

Drawing stories, explaining evolution

I've participated in this outreach activity between illustration and science explaining my research to a professional illustrator (in catalan).

CCCB link.

EvoKE Barcelona 2021 —

I co-organized this meeting which aimed to increase evolutionary literacy in Europe. I've been part on the selection of content and activities, plus some other management duties.

OH HEY, FOR BEST VIEWING, YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR PHONE