I am a molecular biologist and population geneticist with broad interests in evolutionary biology, pathogen genomics, and molecular anthropology. I earned my B.Sc. in Biotechnology and M.Sc. in Anthropological Genetics from the Tecnológico de Costa Rica and the University of Costa Rica, respectively, and my Ph.D. in Archaeogenetics from the University of Calgary, where I studied pre-Columbian ancestry and population movements in Central America and Mexico using mitochondrial ancient DNA. My doctoral research was supported by a Wadsworth Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. I subsequently held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Evolution & Medicine at Arizona State University, where I worked on evolutionary models of within-host pathogen dynamics under the guidance of Dr. Jeffrey Jensen and Dr. Anne Stone. Later, at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Portugal and the University of Bern in Switzerland, I investigated the dynamics of evolutionary rescue in influenza A virus. Since 2023, I have been based in Verona, Italy, as a research fellow at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe). My current work focuses on molecular diagnostics and research on avian and animal pathogens, particularly Mycoplasma species. My research includes pathogen genomics, genomic surveillance, molecular typing, and the development of molecular tools for pathogen detection. I also contribute to research on antimicrobial resistance and apply my background in ancient DNA to the development of approaches for recovering Mycoplasma DNA from environmental samples.