CLAUDIA FILIPA
LOPES GOMES

I completed my Degree in Biology, research branch, at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, (Portugal), in 2009. During my degree, I did an internship at the same institution, within the scope of Cellular and Molecular Biology. In 2009, I joined the Institute of Pathology and Molecular Immunology (IPATIMUP), along with the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, to start the Master in Forensic Genetics, completed in 2011. In 2012, I did a non-curricular stay at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Porto, (Portugal), currently the Northern Delegation of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, IP, Portugal. In 2013, I started at the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid with a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, studying different methodologies to determine complex biological kinship between individuals in an advanced state of decomposition. This study, at the methodological level, allowed the development and establishment of a new method for the extraction of bone and dental samples without their respective destruction; the development of a database of polymorphisms of the X chromosome InDel type, for the establishment of complex kinship relationships, as well as, it was possible to establish a methodology for the determination of External Visible Characteristics, such as eye, skin and hair colour, applied to samples in an advanced state of decomposition. At a conceptual level, the development of this PhD Thesis allowed us to understand different patterns of burial at different periods, establishing, in certain cases, links with biological kinship. I have defended my PhD thesis in 2020, with an A+ "Cum Laude". Previously, I was Professor at the Isabel I University (Burgos, Spain), teaching subjects in Biology, Legal Medicine, and Forensic Genetics, being the coordinator of Forensic Toxicology. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid, in the Department of Legal Medicine, Psychiatry and Pathology, teaching Biology and Genetics applied to Human Populations and Forensic Genetics. Scientific reviewer for different scientific journals, I am at this moment the guest editor of a special issue of the journal Genealogy, indexed in JCR, dedicated to the study of genetic research in the field of kinship. Author and co-author of more than 40 scientific articles, 11 contributions to scientific book chapters, I am specialized in the genetic study of highly degraded samples (Low Template DNA), having participated to date in 29 international congresses, and 10 national conferences. My main forensic line of research focuses on kinship analysis, being specialized in X-chromosome and autosomal markers. In terms of human population genetics, my main research line focuses on studying ancient individuals' biological kinship. I have participated so far in 29 projects, national and international and, currently, I am the main IP of the project "The burial of Galligants, Girona, Spain" granted by the Palarq Foundation (call 2022), whose main objective is to determine the possible biological kinship between the individuals buried in this necropolis according to the Islamic and the Christian rituals, as well as determining its most likely biogeographical origin.