Xabier Bello

Bioinformatician

"If you're not working on your best idea right now, you're doing it wrong."

- David Heinemeier Hansson

Raw data. Expected output. Try to find software that transforms the first into the later. Find nothing. Code. Rinse and repeat through twenty some years and you got the life of any bioinformatic ever existed. And I am not different than that.

I started coding in my teens, tinkering with BASIC, C and some Assembly. Some years passed and for some reason I graduated in biology instead of CS. Luckily for me, as soon as I got my degree, huge amounts of biologic data started pouring into the field so I could fully exploit my programming hobby while being paid to do it.

One of my first tasks was to analyse the first twelve released genomes of Drosophilas. While everybody in the field was using and recommending Perl, I chose Python over it, C or Java. It was cleaner. It was elegant. Bruce Eckel (https://www.mindviewllc.com/), from whom I learned Java with "Thinking in Java" recommended it. Flash forward fifteen years, and everybody is using either Python or R. Jackpot.

A few years later I took a detour into biochemistry, putting together a server to model and simulate GPCR membrane proteins. Walking that path showed me how to set up a complex server, from the bare metal to the internet frontend, while talking to a huge supercomputer that run the simulations in the background. It was fun and the freedom Hugo allowed gave me the opportunity to use Django and PostgreSQL for the first time. They served me well on those days, and still do today.

Afterwards, I worked for some years at a clinical lab focused in human genome sequencing. What could seem as a chance to develop new software, ended up showing that clinical environments tend to lack freedom to experiment. Different skills were needed. It turned out to be a machine to churn out genomic data ready for analysis. The fun part was limited to polish the pipelines in terms of efficiency, both in speed and in memory usage. With time I learned how to be a piece of an assembly line dedicated to turn fresh blood into genetic advice. Also, the tooling was vastly different from what I was used to do, and I started to refrain from coding and do more glueing of "accepted" and rock solid software. Good practices for the win. Luckily for me I found a new toy, Nim (https://nim-lang.org/), which I used extensively to grease some parts of the pipelines while learning something new from the ground up. Daily plumbing, shell honing and minute optimizations were the major pieces of the game.

Currently I'm working at GenPob. A huge shift. Judging by the cover it may seem more of the same old friends: genetics and NGS. But data comes non-stop from any source and in any imaginable shape needing to be transformed into conclusions. Fast. And reliably. Thinking beats resources every day. In the course of the same journey you can work on genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, human, zebra fish, cell cultures, bare metal servers, a new sequencer, concertos (not even joking)... blink and you'll miss something important. Pure madness. And I dig it.

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Xabi Bello
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Publications within the group

  • 2025
    • Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Alba Camino-Mera, Xabier Bello, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Lúa Castelo-Martínez, Conrado Martínez-Cadenas, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2025). Whole-Genome Sequencing in Galicia Reveals Male-Biased Pre-Islamic North African Ancestry, Subtle Population Structure, and Microgeographic Patterns of Disease Risk. FASEB Journal; 39(24):e71253. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202502634R
    • (2025). High-Dose Influenza Vaccine to Reduce Hospitalizations. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2509834
    • Pischedda, Sara; Gómez-Carballa, Alberto; Pardo-Seco, Jacobo; Viz-Lasheras, Sandra; Camino-Mera, Alba; Bello, Xabier; Curras-Tuala, María José; Rivero-Calle, Irene; Dacosta-Urbieta, Ana I.; Martinón-Torres, Federico; Salas, Antonio; López, Miriam Cebey; Gliemmo, Ana Vega; Guitián, José Peña; Novo, Carmen Curros; Trabazo, Rosaura Leis; Torres, Nazareth Martinón; Sánchez, José María Martinón; Pérez, Belén Mosquera; Collazo, Lorenzo Redondo; Rodríguez-Tenreiro, Carmen; Puga, Miriam Taboada; Bellas, Ana Cotovad; Morelle, Ana María Pastoriza; Rey, Silvia Cerqueiro; Vázquez, Sara Rey; Ferreiro, Ana María Senín; Fernández, Sonia Serén; Iglesias, Maria Soledad Vilas; García, Mirian Ben; Casuso, Patricia Regueiro; Martinez, Lara Martinez; Rodríguez, Máximo Francisco Fraga; Lago, Orlando Fernández; Antúnez, José Ramón; Padilla, Carmen Martínez; de la CruzMoreno, Jesús; Martínez, Eugenia Villanueva; Espín, Ana González; de las Mercedes Martínez Rebollo, María; Moya, María Rocío Martín; Victoria Ramos Casado, M.; Rojo, Pablo; Alba, Palacios Cuesta; Orive, Francisco Javier Pilar; Tubert, Carla Pintos; Urabayen, Diego García; Sanchez, Esteban Gomez; Ramos, Juan Valencia; López-Herce, Jesús; Alvarez, Débora Sanz; Calvo, Cristina; Alcolea, Sonia; Sánchez, Rocio; Atucha, Jorge; Hurtado, Jara; Fernández, Ana López; González, Clara Gil; López, Teresa González; Vázquez, Delfina Suarez; Vázquez, Ángela Vázquez; García, Susana Rey; Sande, Nathalie Carreira; Pérez, Nuria Romero; Lozano, Diego Bautista; Jose, Alcaraz Romero Andres; Martin, Sara Guillen; Aragón, Ana Pérez; Paredes, Catalina Ortiz; Ferreiro, María Teresa Rives; Salgado, Jose Luis Moreno; Leiva, Olalla Moyano; Rubinos, Carla Taboada; Miranda, Ana Capilla; Contreras, Jorge; Torre, Andrés Concha; del Castillo Navío, Elena; Tejada, Ana Grande; García, Alfredo Tagarro; Herreros, María Luisa; del Valle, Rut; Galarraga, Laura Moreno; Iturbe, Enrique Bernaola; Álvarez, Jorge; Herranz, Mercedes; Gil, Francisco; Gembero, Eva; Rodríguez, Jorge; García, María Luz García; Rey, Cristina Calvo; Arnal, Iciar Olabarrieta; Rincón, Adelaida Fernández; Reyes, Susana Beatriz; León, María Cruz León; Alfayate, Santiago; Mercader, Beatriz; Sánchez, Francisco Giménez; Salas, Elvira González; De Miguel, Sira Fernández; García, Alfredo Tagarro; Sanchidrián, María Concepción Zazo; García-Fontecha, Esteban; Lorenzo, Marta González; Esteban, Mariano; Castello, María Carmen Vicent; Requena, Lorena Moreno; Martín, César Gavilán; Franco, Monterrat López; Bravo, Mª Nieves Glez; Cabero, María Jesús; Pareja, Marta; Carretero, Adriana Navas; Vazquez, Elvira Cobo; Perez, Patricia Flores; del Prado, María Yolanda Ruiz; Gianzo, José Antonio Couceiro; Perez, Nazareth Fuentes; Piñeiro, Roi; Abancens, Belen Joyanes; de Liria, Carlos Rodrigo Gonzalo; Méndez, Maria; Sánchez, Francisco Giménez; Forte, Miguel Sánchez; Ortega, María José Cilleruelo; Golmayo, Luz; Azorín, Francisca Portero and GENDRES Consortium (2025). DNA methylation signatures of severe RSV infection in infants: evidence from non-invasive saliva samples. Epigenetics & Chromatin; 18(1):25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13072-025-00587-5
    • Sandra Viz-Lasheras, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Xabier Bello, Irene Rivero Calle, Ana Dacosta-Urbieta, Myrsini Kaforou, Dominic Habgood-Coote, Marieke Emonts, Jethro Herberg, Victoria Wright, Enitan Carrol, Stephane Paulus, Werner Zenz, Daniela Kohlfürst, Nina Schweintzger, Ronald de Groot, Luregn Schlapbach, Philipp Agyeman, Andrew Pollard, Colin Fink, Taco Kuijpers, Suzanne Anderson, Clementien Vermont, Michael Levin#, Federico Martinon-Torres, Michiel Van der Flier, Aubrey Cunnington, Ulrich von Both, Dace Zavadska, Marko Pokorn, María Tsolia, Henriette Moll and Antonio Salas (2025). A diagnostic host-specific transcriptome response for Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia to guide pediatric patient treatment. Nature Communications; 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-55932-9
    • Sandra Viz-Lasheras, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Xabier Bello, Irene Rivero-Calle, Ana Isabel Dacosta, Myrsini Kaforou, Dominic Habgood-Coote, Aubrey J. Cunnington, Marieke Emonts, Jethro A. Herberg, Victoria J. Wright, Enitan D. Carrol, Stephane C. Paulus, Werner Zenz, Daniela S. Kohlfürst, Michiel Van der Flier, Ronald de Groot, Luregn J. Schlapbach, Philipp Agyeman, Andrew J. Pollard, Colin Fink, Taco T. Kuijpers, Suzanne Anderson, Cristina Calvo, María del Carmen Martínez-Padilla, Ana Pérez-Aragón, Esteban Gómez-Sánchez, Juan Valencia-Ramos, Francisco Giménez-Sánchez, Paula Alonso-Quintela, Laura Moreno-Galarraga, Ulrich von Both, Marko Pokorn, Dace Zavadska, María Tsolia, Clementien L. Vermont, Henriëtte A. Moll, Michael Levin, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2025). A 5-transcript signature for discriminating viral and bacterial etiology in pediatric pneumonia. iScience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.111747
  • 2024
    • Camino-Mera, Alba; Pardo-Seco, Jacobo; Bello, Xabier; Argiz, Laura; Boyle, Robert J.; Custovic, Adnan; Herberg, Jethro; Kaforou, Myrsini; Arasi, Stefania; Fiocchi, Alessandro; Pecora, Valentina; Barni, Simona; Mori, Francesca; Bracamonte, Teresa; Echeverria, Luis; O'Valle-Aísa, Virginia; Hernández-Martínez, Noelia Lara; Carballeira, Iria; García, Emilio; Garcia-Magan, Carlos; Moure-González, José Domingo; Gonzalez-Delgado, Purificación; Garriga-Baraut, Teresa; Infante, Sonsoles; Zambrano-Ibarra, Gabriela; Tomás-Pérez, Margarita; Machinena, Adrianna; Pascal, Mariona; Prieto, Ana; Vázquez-Cortes, Sonia; Fernández-Rivas, Montserrat; Vila, Leticia; Alsina, Laia; Torres, María José; Mangone, Giusi; Quirce, Santiago; Martinón-Torres , Federico; Vázquez-Ortiz, Marta; Gómez-Carballa, Alberto; Salas, Antonio (2024). Whole Exome Sequencing Identifies Epithelial and Immune Dysfunction-Related Biomarkers in Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. Clinical & Experimental Allergy; 54(11):919-929. https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.14564
  • 2023
    • Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Laura Navarro, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Xabier Bello, Sara Pischedda, Sandra Viz-Lasheras, Alba Camino-Mera, María José Currás, Isabel Ferreirós, Narmeen Mallah, Sara Rey-Vázquez, Lorenzo Redondo, Ana Dacosta-Urbieta, Fernando Caamaño-Viña, Irene Rivero-Calle, Carmen Rodriguez-Tenreiro, Federico Martinón-Torres & Antonio Salas (2023). Music compensates for altered gene expression in age-related cognitive disorders. Scientific Reports; 13(1):21259. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48094-5
    • Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Sandra Viz-Lasheras, Xabier Bello, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Alba Camino-Mera, Sara Pischedda, María José Currás-Tuala, Irene Rivero-Calle, Ana Dacosta, Fernando Caamaño-Viña, Carmen Rodríguez-Tenreiro, Isabel Cifuentes, Cristina Méndez, Chiea Chuen Khor, Federico Martinón-Torres, Antonio Salas, the CAPPRIC study group (2023). Whole exome sequencing identifies new susceptibility candidates underlying community-acquired pneumonia. Genes & Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gendis.2023.101170
    • Alberto Gómez-Carballa, María José Currás-Tuala, Sara Pischedda, Miriam Cebey-López, José Gómez-Rial, Irene Rivero-Calle, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Xabier Bello, Sandra Viz-Lasheras, Antonio Justicia-Grande, Julián Montoto-Louzao, Alba Camino-Mera, Isabel Ferreirós-Vidal, Máximo Fraga, José R. Antúnez, Rodolfo Gómez, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2023). Multi-tissue transcriptomics of a unique monozygotic discordant twin case of severe progressive osseous heteroplasia. Genes & Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gendis.2023.05.001
  • 2022
    • Guillaume Butler-Laporte, Gundula Povysil, Jack A. Kosmicki, Elizabeth T. Cirulli, Theodore Drivas, Simone Furini, Chadi Saad, Axel Schmidt, Pawel Olszewski, Urszula Korotko, Mathieu Quinodoz, Elifnaz Çelik, Kousik Kundu, Klaudia Walter, Junghyun Jung, Amy D. Stockwell, Laura G. Sloofman, Daniel M. Jordan, Ryan C. Thompson, Diane Del Valle, Nicole Simons, Esther Cheng, Robert Sebra, Eric E. Schadt, Seunghee Kim-Schulze, Sacha Gnjatic, Miriam Merad, Joseph D. Buxbaum, Noam D. Beckmann, Alexander W. Charney, Bartlomiej Przychodzen, Timothy Chang, Tess D. Pottinger, Ning Shang, Fabian Brand, Francesca Fava, Francesca Mari, Karolina Chwialkowska, Magdalena Niemira, Szymon Pula, J Kenneth Baillie, Alex Stuckey, Antonio Salas, Xabier Bello, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Irene Rivero-Calle, Federico Martinón-Torres, Andrea Ganna, Konrad J. Karczewski, Kumar Veerapen, Mathieu Bourgey, Guillaume Bourque, Robert JM Eveleigh, Vincenzo Forgetta, David Morrison, David Langlais, Mark Lathrop, Vincent Mooser, Tomoko Nakanishi, Robert Frithiof, Michael Hultström, Miklos Lipcsey, Yanara Marincevic-Zuniga, Jessica Nordlund, Kelly M. Schiabor Barrett, William Lee, Alexandre Bolze, Simon White, Stephen Riffle, Francisco Tanudjaja, Efren Sandoval, Iva Neveux, Shaun Dabe, Nicolas Casadei, Susanne Motameny, Manal Alaamery, Salam Massadeh, Nora Aljawini, Mansour S. Almutairi, Yaseen M. Arabi, Saleh A. Alqahtani, Fawz S. Al Harthi, Amal Almutairi, Fatima Alqubaishi, Sarah Alotaibi, Albandari Binowayn, Ebtehal A. Alsolm, Hadeel El Bardisy, Mohammad Fawzy, Fang Cai, Nicole Soranzo, Adam Butterworth, COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative , DeCOI Host Genetics Group , GEN-COVID Multicenter Study (Italy) , Mount Sinai Clinical Intelligence Center , GEN-COVID consortium (Spain) , GenOMICC Consortium , Japan COVID-19 Task Force , Regeneron Genetics Center , Daniel H. Geschwind, Stephanie Arteaga, Alexis Stephens, Manish J. Butte, Paul C. Boutros, Takafumi N. Yamaguchi, Shu Tao, Stefan Eng, Timothy Sanders, Paul J. Tung, Michael E. Broudy, Yu Pan, Alfredo Gonzalez, Nikhil Chavan, Ruth Johnson, Bogdan Pasaniuc, Brian Yaspan, Sandra Smieszek, Carlo Rivolta, Stephanie Bibert, Pierre-Yves Bochud, Maciej Dabrowski, Pawel Zawadzki, Mateusz Sypniewski, Elżbieta Kaja, Pajaree Chariyavilaskul, Voraphoj Nilaratanakul, Nattiya Hirankarn, Vorasuk Shotelersuk, Monnat Pongpanich, Chureerat Phokaew, Wanna Chetruengchai, Katsushi Tokunaga, Masaya Sugiyama, Yosuke Kawai, Takanori Hasegawa, Tatsuhiko Naito, Ho Namkoong, Ryuya Edahiro, Akinori Kimura, Seishi Ogawa, Takanori Kanai, Koichi Fukunaga, Yukinori Okada, Seiya Imoto, Satoru Miyano, Serghei Mangul, Malak S. Abedalthagafi, Hugo Zeberg, Joseph J. Grzymski, Nicole L. Washington, Stephan Ossowski, Kerstin U. Ludwig, Eva C. Schulte, Olaf Riess, Marcin Moniuszko, Miroslaw Kwasniewski, Hamdi Mbarek, Said I. Ismail, Anurag Verma, David B. Goldstein, Krzysztof Kiryluk, Alessandra Renieri, Manuel A. R. Ferreira, J Brent Richards (2022). Exome-wide association study to identify rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes: Results from the Host Genetics Initiative. PLOS Genetics; 18(11):e1010367. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010367
    • Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Xabier Bello, Alberto Gomez-Carballa, Federico Martinon-Torres, Ignacio Muñoz-Barus, Antonio Salas (2022). A Timeframe for SARS-CoV-2 Genomes: A Proof of Concept for Postmortem Interval Estimations. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 23(21):12899. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232112899
    • Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Irene Rivero-Calle, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, José Gómez-Rial, Carmen Rivero-Velasco, Nuria Rodríguez-Núñez, Gema Barbeito-Castiñeiras, Hugo Pérez-Freixo, Miriam Cebey-López, Ruth Barral-Arca, Carmen Rodriguez-Tenreiro, Ana Dacosta-Urbieta, Xabier Bello, Sara Pischedda, María José Currás-Tuala, Sandra Viz-Lasheras, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2022). A multi-tissue study of immune gene expression profiling highlights the key role of the nasal epithelium in COVID-19 severity. Environmental Research; 210(1):112890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.112890
    • Heather Jackson, Irene Rivero Calle, Claire Broderick, Dominic Habgood‑Coote, Giselle D’Souza, Samuel Nichols, Ortensia Vito, Jose Gómez‑Rial, Carmen Rivero‑Velasco, Nuria Rodríguez‑Núñez, Gema Barbeito‑Castiñeiras, Hugo Pérez‑Freixo, Manuel Barreiro‑de Acosta, Aubrey J. Cunnington, Jethro A. Herberg, Victoria J. Wright, Alberto Gómez‑Carballa, Antonio Salas, Michael Levin, Federico Martinon‑Torres, Myrsini Kaforou, PERFORM consortium & GEN-COVID (www.gencovid.eu) study group (2022). Characterisation of the blood RNA host response underpinning severity in COVID‑19 patients. Scientific Reports; 12(1):12216. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15547-2
    • Sara Pischedda, Irene Rivero-Calle, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Miriam Cebey-López, Ruth Barral-Arca, Jose Gómez Rial, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, María José Currás Tuala, Sandra Viz Lasheras, Xabier Bello, Ana B. Crujeiras, Angel Diaz-Lagares, Teresa María, Federico Martinon-Torres and Antonio Salas (2022). Role and diagnostic performance of host epigenome in respiratory morbidity after RSV infection: the EPIRESVi study. Frontiers in Immunology; 13:875691. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.875691
  • 2021
    • Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Xabier Bello, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2021). Superspreading in the emergence of COVID-19 variants. Trends in Genetics; 37(12):1069-1080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2021.09.003
    • Bello, Xabier, Pardo-Seco, Jacobo, Gómez-Carballa, Alberto, Weissensteiner, Hansi, Martinón-Torres, Federico and Salas, Antonio (2021). CovidPhy: A tool for phylogeographic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 variation. Environmental Research; 204(A):111909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111909
    • Gómez-Carballa, Alberto, Barral-Arca, Ruth, Cebey-López, Miriam, Bello, Xabier, Pardo-Seco, Jacobo, Martinón-Torres, Federico and Salas, Antonio (2021). Identification of a Minimal 3-Transcript Signature to Differentiate Viral from Bacterial Infection from Best Genome-Wide Host RNA Biomarkers: A Multi-Cohort Analysis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 22(6):3148. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22063148
    • Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Xabier Bello, Federico Martinón-Torres, Antonio Salas (2021). Pitfalls of barcodes in the study of worldwide SARS-CoV-2 variation and phylodynamics. Zoological Research; 1(42):87-93. https://doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2020.364
  • 2020
    • Gómez-Carballa, Alberto, Bello, Xabier, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, María Luisa Pérez del Molino, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2020). Phylogeography of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Spain: a story of multiple introductions, micro-geographic stratification, founder effects, and super-spreaders. Zoological Research; 41(6):605-620. https://doi.org/10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2020.217
    • Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Xabier Bello, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2020). Mapping genome variation of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide highlights the impact of COVID-19 super-spreaders. Genome Research; 30(10):1434-1448. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.266221.120
    • Irene Rivero-Calle, Jose Gómez-Rial, Louis Bont, Bradford D. Gessner, Melvin Kohn, Ron Dagan, Daniel C. Payne, Laia Bruni, Andrew J. Pollard, Adolfo García-Sastre, Denise L. Faustman, Albert Osterhaus, Robb Butler, Francisco Giménez Sánchez, Francisco Álvarez, Myrsini Kaforou, Xabier Bello and Federico Martinón-Torres (2020). TIPICO X: report of the 10th interactive infectious disease workshop on infectious diseases and vaccines. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics; 0(0):1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2020.1788301
    • Barral-Arca R, Gómez-Carballa A, Cebey-López M, Currás-Tuala MJ, Pischedda S, Viz-Lasheras S, Bello S, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2020). RNA-Seq data-mining allows the discovery of two long non-coding RNA biomarkers of viral infection in humans. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 21(8):2748. http://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21082748
    • Barral-Arca R, Gómez-Carballa A, Cebey-López M, Bello X, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2020). A Meta-Analysis of Multiple Whole Blood Gene Expression Data Unveils a Diagnostic Host-Response Transcript Signature for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 21(5):1831. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21051831
  • 2019
    • Jacobo Pardo-Seco, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Xabier Bello, Federico Martinón-Torres, Antonio Salas (2019). Biogeographical informativeness of Y-STR haplotypes. Science Bulletin; 64(19):1381-1384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2019.07.025
    • Barral-Arca R, Pardo-Seco J, Bello X, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2019). Ancestry patterns inferred from massive RNA-seq data. RNA; 25:857-868. http://doi.org/10.1261/rna.070052.118