Project Information

Recent advances in genetics are having a major impact on human evolutionary studies. These developments also raise a range of ethical and social issues, including the interplay of biological and cultural factors in the construction of the identity of human populations. With its history of extensive admixture between three major continental populations (Africans, Europeans and Native Americans), Latin America offers a unique opportunity to address a number of questions regarding human evolution, from both a biological and a social science perspective.

In volunteers from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil we are currently:

• Characterizing a range of physical traits, including: facial features, pigmentation of skin, hair and eyes, male pattern baldness and hair greying.
• Documenting socioeconomic indicators, self-perception of ancestry, and information on the views of participants on the nature of "race", and their experience of as well as the effect of the research process on issues of identity.

In a subsequent phase of the research we plan to obtain genetic estimates of ancestry in order to examine the interplay of these estimates with the phenotypic and sociological information collected. The genetic analyses will also aim at identifying specific genes influencing the physical characteristics of the individuals studied. Identification of such genes will have a range of implications for basic biomedical as well as more applied research.

Facebook pages following the development of our work are available for the CANDELA teams in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.