Information for the student – Genetics and Genomics

Final project

What is a Master Thesis? The master’s thesis is a piece of original research work written under the direction of an experienced advisor. All students will undertake a Master’s Thesis or Trabajo Final de Master-TFM (30 ECTS). The Thesis is typically based on an experimental research project carried out in one of the research groups of the list shown in this page.Students may be interested in pursuing further research, for instance in a doctoral (PhD) program, or as a researcher in hospitals or research institutes.

How to do a Master Thesis? You will learn how to plan a research project choose adequate methods to performing the experiments and analysing the results. You will write your Thesis as if it were a scientific publication, critically describing, contemplating and discussing your results in the light of previous scientific literature on the topic.In your written Thesis you are expected to demonstrate that you are capable of scientific thinking, that you are familiar with the methodology and with the topic of your research. The written Thesis is an important exercise for developing skills in project management and written scientific communication.

Where to find the labs to do the Master Thesis? Below you will find a list of laboratories you can apply. You will see a brief title of the work, a link to the web page of the research group and the name of the supervisor. If you decide to join a particular group for your Master Thesis, write an email to the supervisor and ask for further information and availability.

If you have problems finding a lab, please contact the master’s coordinator.

Select your laboratory for the research project (Master Thesis/TFM)

University of Barcelona 2024-25

University of Barcelona, School of Biology offers 2024-25

Viral metagenomics for pandemic species surveiilance and characterization

Transcriptomic landscape of planarian, a model organism in regeneration *

Josep F. Abril

Deciphering the molecular signature of planarian organizers: the key of being a whole-body regenerative animal

Teresa Adell

New organs in insects

Isabel Almudí

Genetics and cell biology of single-cell branching morphogenesis, implications for human disease *

Sofia J. Araújo

Gene loss and heart embryonic development in Oikopleura dioica *

Development of new CRISPR tools in Oikopleura dioica

Cristian Cañestro & Alfonso Ferrández

Genomics and transcriptomics of embryo response to marine biotoxins in the context of climate change

Cristian Cañestro & Nuria Torres-Aguila

Medical genomics of primary immunodeficiencies *

Ferran Casals

Generation and study of iPSC-derived neurons of patients with 7q11.23 rearrangements *

Roser Corominas

Characterization of the role of master genes with phenotypic effects in psychiatry

Bru Cormand and Noelia Fernandez

Regulation of epithelial regeneration by transcription factors and Polycomb proteins

Montserrat Corominas

How to rejuvenate stem cells: the role of autophagy during starvation in regenerative processes

Cristina González-Estévez

Establishing ancestral whole genome duplications in arachnids

Assesing methods to study chromosomal synteny to understand the early evolution of animals

Jesus Lozano

Unexpected molecular encounters: How exogenous genes interact with new host genomes when they meet for the first time?

Ignacio Maeso

Exploring retinal organoids models and precision medicine therapies in retinl rare diseases *

Gemma Marfany

Genomics of stop codon readthrough, an overlooked layer of gene regulation

Marco Mariotti

Plasticity response of adult intact neurons to stress

Marta Morey

Effect of VNN2 variants in neutrophil transmigration and the stroke recovery process

How does a mutation in a single gene manage to cause a full intellectual disability- developmental delay syndrome? *

Raquel Rabionet

Comparative and evolutionary analysis of multi-gene families in spider genomes

Julio Rozas

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University of Barcelona, School of Medicine offers 2023-24

Genetic and epigenetic signatures modulating liver and adipose tissue crosstalk in NAFLD

Pablo M Garcia-Roves

Immunogenic activity of non-coding RNAs in Huntington’s disease

Eulàlia Martí

* indicates group/project has already accepted one student (some groups may accept more than one student)

CNAG, CRG and EMBL 2024-25

Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)

Mechanobiology in development and multicellular self-organisation

Verena Ruprecht

Investigating animal cell type diversity, evolution and regulation using single cell genomics and epigenomics approaches

Chromatin dynamics during Nematostella development

Arnau Sebé

Investigating the interplay between cohesin-mediated looping and topoisomerase function using super-resolution microscopy.

Maria Victoria Neguembor

Efficient computational gene identification across the tree of life

Roderic Guigó

Origin and evolution of novel mammalian genes

Roderic Guigó and Harris Lewin

Other Universities, Research Institutes and Hospitals 2024-25

Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL)

Functional characterization of hereditary cancer genes *

Laura Valle

Molecular insights in rare tumor predisposition syndromes *

Barbara Rivera

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Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), Can Ruti, Badalona

Deciphering the role of HDAC11 in muscular dystrophies

Monica Suelves

Using genomes for life to understand the prevalence of repeat expansion disorders

Gisela Nogales-Gadea

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Fundació Puigvert

Genomic and transcriptomic study of patients with nephropathy of unknown origin with suspected monogenic cause

Elisabet Ars

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Hospital Sant Joan de Déu - Fundació Sant Joan de Déu

Study of the molecular bases of neurodevelopmental diseases to define personalized treatments

Alfonso Oyarzabal

Analysis of whole genomes within the IMPACT(genomics) project

Roser Urreizti and Judith Armstrong

Closing the therapeutic gap for congenital muscular dystrophies: improving efficacy, delivery and safety of CRISPR/cas9 and antisense oligonucleotides based therapies (CANCELLED: lab is moving during TFM period)

Arístides López-Márquez and Cecilia Jiménez Mallebrera

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Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB-CSIC)

Comparative and population genomics of migratory butterflies

Gerard Talavera

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Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC-PCB)

Modeling neurodevelopmental disorders in the mouse and 3D organoids

Maria Lourdes Arbonés

Molecular Basis of cellular drug persistence: from stochastic gene expression to phase transitions

Hector Garcia-Seisdedos

Recording single cell dynamics with CRISPR barcoding

Irene Hernando

Dynamics of stem cell surveillance in live embryos using quantitative imaging

Esteban Hoijman

From Drosophila development to human disease

Gerardo Jiménez

Occupancy of histone H1 variants genome-wide and consequences of altering H1 levels on human chromatin organization and gene expression

Albert Jordan

Cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating epithelial morphogenesis in Drosophila

Marta Llimargas Casanova

Building human spinal cord organoids to study human specific developmental features and neurodevelompental disorders

Elisa Martí

Understanding epigenetic mechanisms involved in early neurogenesis and neurodevelopmental disorders

Marian Martinez-Balbas

Determining the role of dietary interventions in mitochondrial function and health span

Guillermo Martínez Corrales

Reverse genetic screening for regulators of histone methyltransferases in C. elegans (EXPERIMENTAL)

Generating resources for estimating transcription factor activity from RNA-seq data in Drosophila (COMPUTATIONAL)

Marcos Francisco Perez

Investigating Chromatin Topology and Dynamics in Super-Resolution

Exploring Topoisomerases in Stem Cell Dynamics

Victoria Neguembor

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IDIBAPS

Gene Regulation in Stem Cells, Cell Plasticity, Differentiation, and Cancer

Antonio Postigo

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Institute of Biomedical Research (IRB)

Survival mechanisms and plasticity of Drosophila adult progenitor cells

Jordi Casanova

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Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC)

Identification of biomarkers of exposures to environmental pollutans in zebrafish using a multi-omics approach

Characterization of epigenetic induced modifications by endocrine disruptors in zebrafish

Laia Navarro-Martín

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Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC)

Culturing and Ecology of Prokaryotes from Antarctic Lakes and Sea-Ice

Silvia G. Acinas

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Institue of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) (CSIC - Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Exploring the genomic basis of terrestrialization across animals through comparative genomics

Rosa Fernández

Expression and function analysis of genes and small non-coding RNAs during insect choriogenesis.

Alfonso Ferrández

Genomics of adaptation to urban and natural environments in Anopheles and Drosophila

Josefa González

The affair of the insect insulin receptors

José Luis Maestro

Small RNAs regulating insect oogenesis

M. Dolors Piulachs

The unknown cell biology and genomics of the most abundant marine microbial eukaryotes

Daniel J. Richter

Unraveling the cell biology of the closest relatives of animals

Iñaki Ruiz & Elena Casacuberta

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Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigació Mèdica (IMIM)

Evaluation of HIV-induced chronic inflammation and its involvement in early aging

Natalia Garcia Giralt

Deciphering Intercellular Communication in Cancer and Ageing-related Diseases

Patrick-Simon Welz

Implementation of Optical Genome Mapping technology as a tool new cytogenomic tool for diagnosis and research in hematologic malignancies

Blanca Espinet Sola

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Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC)

Deciphering cellular crosstalk between leukemic and stromal cells in co-culture models

Marcus Buschbeck

Studying the function of regulatory RNAs in neurodevelopmental diseases

Sonia Guil

Impact of the dual catalytic activities of the aging-related sirtuin family members in cancer progression.

Irene Fernández-Duran Alejandro Vaquero

Improve mechanistic understanding of Pediatric B-cell precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia to find new biomarkers and therapeutic approaches

Biola M. Javierre

Epigenetics of Human Cancer: DNA Methylation, Histone Modifications and Non-Coding RNAs

Manel Esteller i Verónica Padial

Exploiting CRISPR/Cas9 epigenome editing to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying the onset of blood malignancies

Jose Luis Sardina

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Institut de Salut Global Barcelona (ISGlobal)

Regulation of gene expression in malaria parasites

Alfred Cortés

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Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

Analysis of the diversity of the human genome: demography and adaptation

David Comas

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Universitat de Lleida IRBLleida

Modelling metastasis in Drosophila *

Andreu Casali

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* indicates group has already accepted one student (some groups may accept more than one student)

Master Thesis abroad / Erasmus

La Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales (ORI) de Biología ofrece la posibilidad de hacer el TFM a el extranjero. Consulta esta web de la ORI para más información o contacte a ori-bio@ub.edu.

International (ERASMUS) placements

Optogenetics and Chemical genetics tool development to study heart development in a simple marine chordate

International Center for Marine Molecular Biology (BERGEN, Norway)

Lionel Christiaen

RNA degradation by the exosome and its contribution to chromatin regulation and genome integrity

Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute (MBW), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Neus Visa

Using Drosophila for the identification of genetic vulnerabilities in cancer

Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Cophenhagen, Denmark

Hector Herranz

Crosstalks between transcription, replication and genome stability

Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (IGMM)