Genomic view of the origins and adaptation of Plasmodium populations in the Americas

• Grant number: 23/12394-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: April 22, 2024
• End date: April 21, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Protozoology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Urbano Ferreira
• Grantee: Nathalia Rammé Medeiros de Albuquerque
• Supervisor: Joana Carneiro da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/10056-2 - The conquest of the Americas by Malaria parasites: a population genomic view, BP.PD

Abstract

This is a proposal for a research internship - lasting 12 months - at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, under the supervision of Dra. Joana Carneiro da Silva. The main objective of this internship is to obtain training in population genomic analysis techniques in order to determine the probable origin populations of current populations of Plasmodium spp. that were introduced to the Americas after European colonization and the transatlantic slave trade from Africa, and to identify signatures of selection and adaptation to New World vectors and hosts. We will use public genomic data ofPlasmodium spp., as well as genomic data generated from new samples obtained in Brazil, Africa and samples from old Giemsa-stained thick blood smears prepared >65 years ago from Plasmodium-infected patients from Sado Valley, Portugal.