Mahmoud Magdy
About
I embarked on my professional journey as a teacher assistant at the Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Egypt. In 2009, I secured a postgraduate scholarship sponsored by AECID (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain), enabling me to join Prof. Rosa M. Ros’s laboratory at Murcia University. I earned an MSc in “Molecular Biology and Biotechnology” in 2010 and a Ph.D. in “Biodiversity and Environmental Management” in 2013. Throughout this academic odyssey, I honed my expertise in molecular genetic techniques, statistics, computational biology, bioinformatics, and ecological modeling, applied specifically to population genetics, molecular ecology, and evolutionary biology. Returning to Ain Shams University by the end of 2013, I was promoted to assistant professor in 2014. I founded the “Applied Genomics and Molecular Biodiversity” laboratory and assembled a dedicated team. In 2017, my journey took me to Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU, China), where I served as a postdoc fellow until the culmination of 2021. Subsequently, I rejoined Ain Shams University in 2022 as an Associate Professor of Genetics. In 2023, I seized the opportunity to return to Murcia University as a distinguished investigator, supported by the Maria Zambrano Mobility Grant. Continuing as a postdoctoral researcher with the Saavedra Fajardo fellowship in 2024, I remain actively engaged in research. My career trajectory has nurtured a keen interest in molecular genetics techniques and bioinformatic tools, particularly applied to macro- and micro-biodiversity (e.g., DNA barcoding & metabarcoding), high-throughput genomics (e.g., chloroplast genome assembly, genotyping-by-sequencing), and evolutionary biology (e.g., molecular systematics and phylogeography). I have dedicated attention to endangered and endemic species, focusing on sites of significant biological and cultural heritage value in Egypt, such as threatened biosphere reserves and ancient archaeological sites. Over the years, I have fostered collaborations with research teams in Spain, China, Germany, Italy, and Egypt. My responsibilities have included overseeing NGS-based genomics, extranuclear genomics, metagenomics, metabarcoding techniques, and conducting related bioinformatics analyses.