Victor Borda, PhD

• Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; Peru; BS, Biology, 2008
• Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; Peru; Master, Molecular Biology, 2014
• Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Brazil; PhD, Bioinformatics, 2019
• Laboratorio Nacional de Computacao Cientifica; Brazil ; Postdoctoral research; 2020
• University of Maryland Baltimore, Postdoctoral Research; 2023

My research first explored this question in different biogeographical regions ranging from the Central Andes to the African Great Lakes. During the last few years, I have combined different fields (archaeology, anthropology, and genetics) in order to answer the question: How have evolutionary and demographic factors shaped the present-day genetic diversity of human populations?.

I have explored Native American genetic diversity and identified signals of ancient gene flow across the Andean region, which were associated with cultural interaction between groups from the Highland and Amazonian regions. Currently, I am incorporating several statistical genetic analyses to understand the recent dynamics of Latin American populations. From this point, I believe that by investigating the history of these groups, we can start to understand the architecture of complex phenotypes and work towards eliminating disparities, and also understand the diversity that makes us human

Native Americans, Latin America, African Diaspora, Population genetics, Genomics, admixture, gene flow, identity-by-descent,GWAS.

1. Borda V, Alvim I, Mendes M, Silva-Carvalho C, Soares-Souza GB, Leal TP, Furlan V, Scliar MO, Zamudio R, Zolini C, Araújo GS, Luizon MR, Padilla C, Cáceres O, Levano K, Sánchez C, Trujillo O, Flores-Villanueva PO, Dean M, Fuselli S, Machado M, Romero PE, Tassi F, Yeager M, O'Connor TD, Gilman RH, Tarazona-Santos E, Guio H. (2020) The genetic structure and adaptation of Andean highlanders and Amazonians are influenced by the interplay between geography and culture. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Dec 22;117(51):32557-32565. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7768732.
2. Gouveia MH, Borda V, Leal TP, Moreira RG, Bergen AW, Kehdy FSG, Alvim I, Aquino MM, Araujo GS, Araujo NM, Furlan V, Liboredo R, Machado M, Magalhaes WCS, Michelin LA, Rodrigues MR, Rodrigues-Soares F, Sant Anna HP, Santolalla ML, Scliar MO, Soares-Souza G, Zamudio R, Zolini C, Bortolini MC, Dean M, Gilman RH, Guio H, Rocha J, Pereira AC, Barreto ML, Horta BL, Lima-Costa MF, Mbulaiteye SM, Chanock SJ, Tishkoff SA, Yeager M, Tarazona-Santos E. Origins, Admixture Dynamics, and Homogenization of the African Gene Pool in the Americas. Mol Biol Evol. 2020 Jun 1;37(6):1647-1656. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa033. PMID: 32128591; PMCID: PMC7253211.
3. Borda V, da Silva Francisco Junior R, Carvalho JB, Morais GL, Duque Rossi Á, Pezzuto P, Azevedo GS, Schamber-Reis BL, Portari EA, Melo A, Moreira MEL, Guida LC, Cunha DP, Gomes L, Vasconcelos ZFM, Faucz FR, Tanuri A, Stratakis CA, Aguiar RS, Cardoso CC, Vasconcelos ATR. (2021) Whole-exome sequencing reveals insights into genetic susceptibility to Congenital Zika Syndrome. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Jun;15(6):e0009507. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8224898.
4. Borda V, Loesch DP, Guo B, Laboulaye R, Veliz-Otani D, French JN, Leal TP, Gogarten SM, Ikpe S, Gouveia MH, Mendes M, Abecasis GR, Alvim I, Arboleda-Bustos CE, Arboleda G, Arboleda H, Barreto ML, Barwick L, Bezzera MA, Blangero J, Borges V, Caceres O, Cai J, Chana-Cuevas P, Chen Z, Custer B, Dean M, Dinardo C, Domingos I, Duggirala R, Dieguez E, Fernandez W, Ferraz HB, Gilliland F, Guio H, Horta B, Curran JE, Johnsen JM, Kaplan RC, Kelly S, Kenny EE, Konkle BA, Kooperberg C, Lescano A, Lima-Costa MF, Loos RJF, Manichaikul A, Meyers DA, Naslavsky MS, Nickerson DA, North KE, Padilla C, Preuss M, Raggio V, Reiner AP, Rich SS, Rieder CR, Rienstra M, Rotter JI, Rundek T, Sacco RL, Sanchez C, Sankaran VG, Santos-Lobato BL, Schumacher-Schuh AF, Scliar MO, Silverman EK, Sofer T, Lasky-Su J, Tumas V, Weiss ST; Latin American Research Consortium on the Genetics of Parkinson’s Disease (LARGE-PD); National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN) Consortium; Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Population Genetics Working Group; Mata IF, Hernandez RD, Tarazona-Santos E, O'Connor TD. Genetics of Latin American Diversity Project: Insights into population genetics and association studies in admixed groups in the Americas. Cell Genom. 2024 Nov 13;4(11):100692. doi: 10.1016/j.xgen.2024.100692. Epub 2024 Oct 31. PMID: 39486408; PMCID: PMC11605695.