Iva Gomes is currently the Technical Director of the Forensic Genetics and Kinship Analyses Unit at Ipatimup Diagnosticss. A specialist in human genetics, her research has focused on the study of polymorphisms and biomarkers at the genome and transcriptome levels, with applications in forensic sciences and in the genetic characterization of populations. As head of the Forensic Genetics Unit, her main objective is the development and implementation of new technologies and tools to support forensic expertise, particularly in criminal investigations and kinship testing.

Between 2005 and 2010, she carried out most of her doctoral research at IPATIMUP, while also undertaking research periods at internationally renowned forensic genetics institutions, including the Instituto de Ciencias Forenses Luís Concheiro in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States. In 2010, she obtained her PhD from the University of Santiago de Compostela and was awarded the Extraordinary Doctoral Prize for that academic year.

She subsequently continued her scientific career in Germany at the Department of Forensic Molecular Genetics of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Cologne, supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, where she remained for seven years. During this period, her work focused mainly on gene expression analysis of RNA markers for the identification of body fluids and tissues in the context of criminal investigations. She was also a member of the coordinating team of the first European forensic genetics consortium, the European Forensic Genetics Network of Excellence (EUROFORGEN-NoE, FP7-SEC-2011-285487; 2012–2017).

In 2018, she returned to IPATIMUP and to i3S — the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health at the University of Porto — where she served until 2025 as an Assistant Researcher under the FCT CEEC 2017 programme, integrated in the Population Genetics and Evolution research group.

Alongside her research activities, she has been actively involved in teaching and training, delivering several modules and seminars. She has served as an Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto in the Master’s programme in Forensic Genetics. Throughout her career, she has supervised several MSc and PhD theses, contributing to the training of young researchers in human genetics. With an h-index of 22, she has authored around 55 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including several book chapters.