A. Jesús Muñoz
Pajares

A. Jesús Muñoz-Pajares is Assistant Professor at the Department of Genetics (University of Granada). While he was studying for his degree in Biochemistry at the same University, he started to research the evolutionary dynamics of parasitic chromosomes in grasshoppers. In 2013, he obtained a PhD. with a dissertation on pollinators' role in the evolution of a generalist plant species. Then he moved to the Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO-University of Porto), where he established a robust and diverse network of collaborations. During the six years he spent in CIBIO as a postdoctoral researcher, he worked with a wide variety of biological systems (including bacteria, plants, and animals) and approaches (from greenhouse experiments to in-silico analyses). He also contributed to establishing two new research lines in the group, focused on studying the genetic diversity of Portuguese grape varieties and the genomic basis of natural resistance to disease in coffee plants.

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In 2019, he returned to the University of Granada, supported by the Athenea3i – 2018 Marie Skłodowska – Curie Cofund Action to develop tools for monitoring genetic diversity in Sierra Nevada plant species. Since 2021 he is an assistant professor and the main objective of his current research is to demonstrate that an ecosystem's entire genetic diversity can be monitored using next-generation sequencing.

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