David Castellano

I'm an evolutionary geneticist who uses computers to extract knowledge from DNA sequences. Happily married with 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

The principle focus of my research is the rate, pattern and effects of mutations in humans and other species such as chimpanzees or flies. I have also begun to use cancer genomes as a study system. I investigate these questions through statistical analysis of DNA sequences and mathematical modelling. My interests range from the evolution of the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations and how the mutation rate varies across the genome and species.

I also have a growing interest in evolutionary biology education and equity, inclusion and diversity aspects of science. Recently I've become obsessed with the philosophy of science and perspectival realism.

Scientific interests —

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

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

2. the impact of linkage disequilibrium 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.

I am now a postdoc in Ryan Gutenkunst's group at the University of Arizona, where I am developing statistical methods to estimate the distribution of fitness effects using DNA diversity patterns.

Gutenkunst's group website

My Links

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

  1. Orcid number.
  2. Mastodon.
  3. ResearchGate.
  4. 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.

Link
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