Valentina Rovelli holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Roma Tre, where she completed her doctoral thesis on the application of genetic and genomic methodologies for the conservation of three amphibian species endemic to Italy. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher on a joint DIP project between Israel and Germany, investigating the local adaptation of amphibian populations to climate change from both genomic and physiological perspectives. She also contributed to the ERC project DEADSEA_ECO, focusing on ancient DNA analyses of several mammal species. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Rome Tor Vergata for the ERC project FELIX, where she investigates the evolutionary history of cat domestication. Her research integrates modern and ancient DNA laboratory techniques with bioinformatic and paleogenomic analyses to reconstruct the past and present history of animal populations.