Name: Dr. Monica Saldarriaga

Actual occupation: Principal of Research and Graduate studies

Institution: Universidad Iberoamericana de Ciencias y Tecnología

Research on: Evolutionary process of venomous animals

Research Interest:

The main objective of her investigation is to clarify the origin and evolution of venomous animals, establishing phylogenetic relationships between species and the components of the venom of invertebrates (spiders and scorpions) and vertebrates (Ophidia) of South America and Mesoamerica by using bioinformatics and computational biology tools. In 2006 during her PhD in Science, her thesis was guided by the PI (Marco Méndez) on the phylogeny and phylogeography of Bothrops asper, and we have published part of her results in the journal Toxicon (ISI).