My name is Małgorzata Anna Gazda (nickname Gosia) and main research interest consists of applying omics methods to answer questions of general interest in evolutionary biology.
For my Postdoc at CoFuGeno group under the supervision of Camille Berthelot I will address the molecular evolution of menstruation using state-of-the-art comparative and functional genomic assays. I will carry out a genome-wide analysis at two different time scales (within primates and across mammals) to identify genes and regulatory elements controlling menstruation, as well as the evolutionary forces driving the evolution of this trait. Determining how evolution shaped menstruation is critical for advancing the fields of medicine and human reproduction.
For my PhD at CIBIO, University of Porto, Portugal, I used next generation sequencing to undercover genes underlying traits of general importance in avian biology and evolution, such as coloration and singing in canary birds as well as flying performance and orientation in racing pigeons. I used domestic species, what facilitated possibility to find genes causing extreme phenotypic variation, which resulted from the strong artificial selection. I had a unique opportunity to find out which genes are responsible for the traits under study and also to provide insights into the evolutionary processes that created those traits. The most important goal of my research so far was understanding of the complete evolutionary mechanism of trait generation, from causative genetic change to specific phenotype.
Prior to my PhD studies, I graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland with a MSc thesis about heterozygosity-fitness correlations, supervised by Aleksandra Biedrzycka and Jacek Radwan. Afterwards I gained experience working 2 years in the Museum and Institute of Zoology PAN, Warsaw, Poland and Technical University of Munchen, Germany as a research assistant. I worked in the molecular laboratory, developed set of microsatellites and sexing markers for birds. I have extended fieldwork experience : tropical biology courses (Venezuela and Madagascar), followed 4 months ornithological field work in New Caledonia.
