Albano Gonçalo Beja Pereira
Principal Researcher
Albano Beja-Pereira, researcher in population genetics and evolution at CIBIO – University of Porto, a portuguese citizen, has been working on the reconstruction of the livestock species domestication and recent evolutionary history. He graduated (licenciatura) in Animal Sciences and Husbandry by Azores University (1997) and received his Ph D. (doutoramento) from University of Porto (2005).
His main research area is to assess the impact of domestication process in the genome and population structure of the domesticated species (animal and plants). During the last twelve years he has being studying the main domestication centers and the major routes of human expansion and trade. Domestics were privileged witnesses of human history across the last ten millennia. Assessing the phylogeography of domestic species and of its wild ancestors may help to infer the history of our species. Innitially, he studied the world-wide maternal phylogeography of the most important domestic species (Cattle, Chicken, Donkey, Goat, Horse, Sheep).
Currently, he is interested on using population genomics tools to evaluate molecular variation at the coding nuclear genes to detect signatures of selection and past demographic events, that shaped the genome of the livestock species. He is also envolved in projects related with the study and conservation of threatened wild ancestors/relatives populations of the livestock species such as the African wild ass (Equus africanus)and the Marco Polo sheep (Ovis argali). Since 2010 he serves in the Review editorial Board of Frontiers on Genetics – Section Livestock Genomics, and he has been founder (2006) and organizer of an annual course on Conservation and Population Genomics Data Analyses (ConGen), data each other year takes place in Porto and Missoula, MT, USA.