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Niccole Porras Alvarez

Doctoral student

Abteilung für Verhalten, Ökologie und Kultur des Menschen
Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

Telefon: +49 (0) 341 3550 341
E-Mail: niccole_porras_alvarez@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

Research Interest

I am interested in people's genetic and cultural diversity. Through my PhD research, under the supervision of Anne Kandler, Laurel Fogarty and Adam Powell, I aim to understand how demographic, cultural, and evolutionary processes have shaped past and present patterns of diversity within and between populations. I am currently focused on exploring the effects of migration on cultural and genetic diversity. Based on population genetics and cultural evolution theory expectations, I am building a model that aims to understand the population dynamics that lead to matches and mismatches in diversity patterns between cultural and genetic systems. I am a member of the TICE Lab. 

Education

2021-PresentPh.D. 
International Max Planck Research School "Leipzig School of Human Origins" 
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
2019-2021Master
Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology 
University of Groningen 
University of Uppsala
2015-2019Bachelors
Undergraduate Program in Genomic Sciences - Honorific Mention  
National Autonomous University of Mexico

Research Experience

Spring 2021Master thesis A: ‘A neural network model for cultural evolution’
Supervisor: Prof. Franz J. Weissing
Institute: University of Groningen
Summer 2021Master thesis B: ‘Model for a forward in time simulation of polygenic selection’  Supervisor: Prof. Fernando Racimo
Institute: University of Copenhagen with supervision from University of Uppsala 
Spring 2020Project: ‘Accumulation of transposable elements on the sex chromosomes of the African pygmy mouse’.
Supervisors: Prof. Pierre Boursot & Dr. Paul Saunders
Institute: Institute of Evolutionary Sciences of Montpellier - University of Montpellier
Summer 2019Undergraduate thesis project ‘Insights into the demographic history of Portuguese middle and late neolithic populations through ancient DNA analysis’.
Summer 2018 Summer Internship: Analysis of evolutionary processes driving differential sex-biased gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster. Supervisor: Prof. Beatriz Vicoso
Institute: Institute of Science and Technology of Austria
Spring 2018  Teaching  assistant in the human genomics course at my undergraduate program (UNAM)
2016-2018Evolution of sexual systems: expression and decay of genes in the Y chromosome, on age-based differential gene expression in M.mulatta and M.musculus ; phylogenetic evolution simulations.
Supervisor: Dr. Diego Cortez 
Institute: Systems Biology laboratory of the Center for Genomic Sciences, UNAM 
Summer 2017Analysis of alternative splicing across gene families in mammals from transcriptomic data of 45 different species
Supervisor: Dr. Araxi Urrutia
Institute: Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath
Winter 2016 Single cell analyses and testing for different clustering methods for a set of expression data to  identify distinct cell populations of differentiated cells and intermediate states
Supervisor: Prof. Robert Kelsh
Institute: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath

Published collaborations

  • Acosta, A., Martínez-Pacheco, M. L., Díaz-Barba, K., Porras, N., Gutiérrez-Mariscal, M., & Cortez, D. (2019). Deciphering ancestral sex chromosome turnovers based on analysis of male mutation bias. Genome biology and evolution, 11(11), 3054-3067.

Science outreach

Participant at: 

  • Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet Darwin's Day in Stockholm, 2019 
  • SciFest - Science Festival, Uppsala 2019

Scholarships

  • EMJMD scholarship for master studies (2019-2021). 
  • OeAD Sonderstipendien, IST AUSTRIA (2018). 
  • Scholarship for training in research methods SEP-UNAM-FUNAM (2016-2017).