Iva Gomes is an Associate Research scientist at i3S specialized in Molecular Genetics, with particular focus in forensic and population genetic applications. Specialized in the analyses and understanding of the role of polymorphisms at the genome and transcriptome levels, she has also participated with major roles in projects in the field of clinical genetics such as Alzheimer and SIDs, She developed her doctoral work at IPATIMUP from 2005 to 2010 in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. During this period, Iva specialized on the analysis of genetic markers, on the development of multiplex systems and on the understanding of population differentiation at the genome level as well as the forensic use of loci in human identification. Her doctoral path gave her also professional opportunities at the international level such as research experiences at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in NYC, USA, as well as member of the Visiting Scientist program at the FBI, USA. She obtained her PhD in 2010 from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Following her doctoral thesis, Iva was granted a 2 year Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the prestigious German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to continue her research at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Cologne in Germany. During Iva’s post-doctoral period she focused mostly on the gene expression analysis of RNA markers for the identification of body fluids and tissues at the expression level. Her research path continued as a team member of the coordinating laboratory of the European Forensic Genetics Network of Excellence- EUROFORGEN-NoE (FP7-SEC-2011-285487; 2012-2017); the largest consortium in this field. Iva was fully engaged and committed to several working packages both at the research level as well as with educational efforts and dissemination activities. Iva also had the opportunity to have an active role in the periodical review meetings with the project’s EU officer and by aiding in the report writing. During the 7 year period her major responsibilities included the scientific planning, execution, supervision and management of the majority of the department’s research projects in addition to her own projects. She also lectured topics in gene expression analyses as well as gave practical courses on this topic. 

With an H-index of 22, Iva has published nearly 55 peer-reviewed papers including several book chapters. At the academic level, she has continuously supervised students from bachelor, master, and doctoral projects and lectured as an Invited Assistant teacher at the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Porto. which allowed her to interact with different types and levels of experiments and daily troubleshooting of problems by passing on her research and academic knowledge to students.

After a period of 7 years in Germany, she returned to her home institute of IPATIMUP (now i3S) in 2018 and holds a Research Assistant position obtained under the FCT CEEC 2017 program.