Claudia Fontsere defended her Ph.D. thesis in December 2020 and is currently a postdoc at Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC) in Barcelona, Spain. Her main research interest is the study of endangered species with a population genomic perspective to understand how ecology shapes the genetic diversity of populations through time. Her work has encompassed the genomic analysis of hundreds of great ape fecal samples. 

Non-invasive samples such as feces offer a promising opportunity to study the genetics of endangered species without disturbance in the wild. However, the low amount and quality of host DNA pose significant challenges for sequencing and analysis. We have previously developed a method to characterize wild chimpanzee populations through hybridization capture methods on chromosome 21 from fecal samples that enables us to geolocalize individuals from unknown origin. Now, we intend to build a fast and portable alternative based on Oxford Nanopore Technologies' adaptive sampling to sequence chimpanzees on site with the MinION Mk1C.