Breckenfeld Ferrarini, Fernanda

Bio

Fernanda is a second-year Molecular Anthropology PhD student, from Brazil. She holds a BSc. in Biotechnology and during her undergraduate studies, she researched genetic mutations related to Alzheimer's Disease. After graduating, she worked with COVID-19 molecular diagnosis at the Institute of Molecular Biology of Paraná, in Curitiba (Brazil). Her research interests include molecular anthropology, human evolution, infectious disease, co-evolution, population genetics, mtDNA, and ancient DNA.

For her MAA, she is investigating inheritance patterns of malaria resistance gene variants in The Bahamas population and its relation to uniparental ancestry.

Her PhD research involves ancient DNA analysis from Icelandic zooarchaeological remains to better understand population dynamics and evolution and the relationship between humans and domesticated animals in the Arctic region.

She works at the Evolutionary Anthropology and Genetics Laboratory (EAGL) and the Archaeogenetics Laboratory, at the Anthropology Department.

Degrees

  • BSc. in Biotechnology - Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brazil (2021)

Areas of Interest

  • Molecular Anthropology
  • Population Genetics
  • Co-evolution
  • Ancient DNA

Fernanda standing in front of ancient human species cranium replicas at 0124B Laboratory at Woods Hall.

Fernanda Breckenfeld Ferrarini
Doctoral Student

| EAGLab / Archaeogenetics Lab

| ferbreck@umd.edu

Advisors