Residency Period: 03/01/2008 to 02/28/2009
Professor Sérgio Danilo Junho Pena graduated in Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine (1970). He did a Doctorate at the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Manitoba, Canada (1977) and a Post-Doctorate at the Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London. He is currently a professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology and Director of the Laboratory of Clinical Genomics at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. He is also Scientific Director of GENE – Nucleus of Medical Genetics of Minas Gerais and of Gene-Genealógica Central de GenoTipagem de Animais. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS), Academia Mineira de Medicina and Academia Mineira de Pediatria. He is a member of the National Science and Technology Council. He has experience in Genetics, with emphasis on Human and Medical Genetics, working mainly on the following topics: genomic diversity and human evolution, formation and structure of the Brazilian population, population structure of Trypanosoma cruzi, development of PCR-based tests for disease diagnosis and application of Next Generation Genomics in Clinical Medicine.
GENETIC HISTORY OF THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE
The project provides for the continuity of research on the genetic aspects of Amerindians, Brazilian whites and Brazilian blacks, characterizing these groups both in their current population structure and in their genealogical and phylogeographical aspects. From this set of data emerges a true molecular portrait of the formation and structure of the Brazilian people. The objective is to merge these genetic data with historical, anthropological, sociological and demographic data to produce a work, transdisciplinary in its essence, on the genetic history of the Brazilian people.