Dr. Otsanda Ruiz-Larrañaga
Position: Post-doctoral researcher.
Contact:
otsanda.ruiz@ehu.eus
Tlf: 0034 94 601 55 03
Fax: 0034 94 601 31 45
Otsanda Ruiz-Larrañaga won in 2013 the special award with her PhD project in Biological Sciences at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) (PhD title: Association study of candidate genes for susceptibility to Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in cattle, December 2010). Her research activity was developed in collaboration with the NEIKER-Tecnalia research center and the University of Utrecht and focused on the identification of SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) markers potentially useful for the implementation of MAS (marker-assisted selection) in breeding programs, with the final objective of reducing the impact of paratuberculosis in the dairy industry.
During the last 5 years she has been working on two main research lines. On the one hand, she has been one of the responsible of genetic association studies within the European GAPAID project (2012-2014), which was focused on the diagnosis/prognosis of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, in European populations. On the other hand, and since 2013, Dr. Ruiz-Larrañaga works on the identification of selection signatures, or “selective sweeps”, in different sheep breeds from Basque Country. Following a selection mapping study, and using NGS and whole genome genotyping technologies (Ovine 50K chip, Illumina), she’s searching for those genomic regions affected either by the artificial selection pressure suffered by the Latxa dairy sheep, either by the natural selection or adaptation processes in the case of the semiferal Sasi Ardi sheep.
Currently, Dr. Ruiz-Larrañaga continues working on ovine genomics in collaboration with NEIKER-Tecnalia, the ISGC (International Sheep Genomics Consortium) and the Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman (Iran). In addition, she’s proposed to apply the selection mapping strategy for adaptability studies in Engraulis encrasicoulus and Apis mellifera (in the context of BEEHOPE and SMARTBEES projects) species.
Since 2005, Dr. Ruiz-Larrañaga has participated in 12 national/international research projects and contracts resulting in 10 peer reviewed papers and 17 communications to conferences (2 oral, 15 posters). She has also occasionally collaborated with the Sequencing and Genotyping Unit from the Genomics Facilities of UPV/EHU (SGiker).