Marta Ciccarella

I am a PhD student in Anthropological Genetics, interested in the genetic ancestry and demography of populations descended from enslaved Africans. My research focuses on admixed populations in Cabo Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe, two African archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean that served as key hubs for the establishment of the transatlantic slave trade and plantation system. I study how different socio-cultural environments affect the distribution of human genetic diversity, using islands' history and anthropology to inform models of genetic admixture.

 

I completed a Master's degree in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Bologna, Italy, and a Master's degree in Bioinformatics at the Paris Cité University, France. In 2020, I have been granted FCT funding to start my PhD at the FCUP, Faculty of Science of the University of Porto, in collaboration with the Biopolis-CIBIO "HumanEVOL - Human Evolutionary Bioology" group, in Portugal, and the CNRS-MNHN-ParisCité "UMR7206 Eco-anthropology - Anthropological Genetics team", in France.