Licia Colli

Licia Colli is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Piacenza, Italy, where she works in the Department of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition. She specializes in general livestock husbandry and genetic improvement (AGRI-09/A classification).

Her educational background includes a cum laude degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Parma (2000) and a PhD in Animal Biology from the University of Bologna (2004). She teaches multiple courses including Animal Science, Applied Statistics and Physics, Aquaculture and Minor Farms, Biodiversity and Traceability of Agricultural Products, and Raw Materials across various degree programs.

Dr. Colli's research focuses on studying the biodiversity of livestock species with emphasis on protecting genetic resources, traceability of animal products for food safety, and reconstructing domestication processes. Her work provides insights into human population history from the Neolithic onward. She also researches animal biodiversity conservation using traditional taxonomic methods and modern molecular biology techniques including complete mitochondrial genome sequencing, barcoding approaches, and ancient DNA analysis combined with high-throughput next-generation sequencing.

She serves as Head of the Ancient DNA Laboratory and is a member of the Steering Committee at the Research Center on Biodiversity and Ancient DNA. Dr. Colli has participated in numerous national and international research projects on molecular genetic techniques and serves as an ad hoc referee for 15 international journals while also sitting on the Editorial Board for The Scientific World Journal (Zoology) and ISRN Evolutionary Biology.