Carlos Eduardo Guerra Amorim
-
Mail code: 2402Campus: Tempe
-
Eduardo Amorim is an evolutionary anthropologist and population geneticist whose research integrates paleogenomics, population genetics, and evolutionary theory to investigate recent human evolution. His work seeks to understand how evolutionary mechanisms, particularly natural selection, have shaped human genetic diversity and health.
A central focus of Amorim’s research is human adaptation to pathogens and other extreme environmental conditions. Using genome-wide data from ancient and present-day populations, he studies how selective pressures, such as exposure to infectious diseases, have influenced human genetic diversity. A second major component of his research centers on reconstructing human population history and migration, with particular emphasis on the South American Holocene and Medieval Europe. Amorim also studies biological relatedness in archaeological contexts using ancient DNA. His work reconstructs genetic relatedness among individuals within archaeological sites to investigate patterns of family organization, mobility, and social structure in past societies. While grounded in population genetics, this research explicitly engages with questions about how biological relatedness intersects with social identity, mortuary practices, and cultural systems of kinship.
In addition to his work on humans, Amorim investigates human–animal relationships in evolutionary and archaeological contexts, with a particular focus on the domestication and evolutionary history of canids. By integrating ancient DNA, population genomics, and archaeological evidence, this research explores how processes such as domestication, selection, and human-mediated dispersal shaped the genomes and life histories of dogs and other canids.
Beyond these applied questions, Amorim’s research program also addresses more fundamental questions in evolutionary biology concerning how evolutionary processes operate across species. In this line of inquiry, he studies how core evolutionary forces and genetic processes — such as mutation, recombination, gene expression, demography, and natural selection — operate and interact to shape patterns of genetic diversity within and between species.
- Ph.D. Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 2013
- M.Sc. Department of Genetics and Development, University of Brasília, Brazil, 2009
- B.Sc. Institute of Life Sciences, University of Brasília, Brazil, 2007
- Population history
- Local adaptation and natural selection
- Evolutionary genetics of human health and disease
- Paleogenomics
- Biological relatedness and kinship inference
- Domestication and human–animal bonds
(Past five years; for a complete publication list, see CV)
2026 Anchieri L, Amorim CE, Neuenschwander S, Malaspinas A-S. Assessing Ancient DNA Sampling Strategies for Natural Selection Inference in Humans Using Allele Frequency Time Series Data. Genome Biology and Evolution (in press)
2026 Amorim CE, Raff J. Scrutinizing kinship and biological relatedness through the lens of paleogenomics. Cambridge Archaeological Journal (in press)
2026 Bozzi D*, Broomandkhoshbacht N*, Delgado M*, Buikstra J, Amorim CE, Kassadjikova K, Estrada Pratt M, Greub G, Rascovan N, Šmajs D, Fehren-Schmitz L#, Malaspinas A-S#, Nelson EA#. A 5,500-year-old Treponema pallidum genome from Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. Science 391(6783):eadw3020
2023 Mota BS, Rubinacci S, Cruz-Dávalos DI, Amorim CE, Sikora M, Johannsen NN, Szmyt M, Włodarczak P, Szczepanek A, Przybyła MM, Schroeder H, Allentoft ME, Willerslev E, Malaspinas A-S, Delaneau O. Imputation of ancient genomes. Nature Communications 14:3660
2023 Amorim CE. Ancient DNA and population history: the genomic record. In: Larsen C (Ed.) A Companion to Biological Anthropology. 2nd Edition. Willey-Blackwell.
2021 Clemente F*, Unterländer M*, Dolgova O*, Amorim CE, Coroado-Santos F, Neuenschwander S, Ganiatsou E, Dávalos DI, Anchieri L, Michaud F, Winkelbach L, Blöcher J, Kalliga E, Souleles A, Kontopoulos I, Karamitrou-Mendessidi G, Philaniotou O, Sampson A, Theodorou D, Tsipopoulou M, Akamatis I, Halstead P, Kotsakis K, Urem-Kotsou DC, Panagiotopoulos D, Ziota C, Triantaphyllou S, Delaneau O, Jensen JD, Moreno-Mayar JV, Burger J, Lao O, Sousa VC, Malaspinas AS#, Papageorgopoulou C#. The genomic history of the Aegean palatial civilizations. Cell 184: 1–22
2021 Amorim CE, M Dasari, L Durgavich, Hinde K#, Kissel M, Lewton KL, Loewen TN. Integrative Approaches to dispersing science: A case-study of March Mammal Madness. Am J Hum Biol S1:e23659.
2021 Hinde K#, Amorim CE, AF Brokaw, N Burt, M Casillas, A Chen, T Chestnut, PK Connors, M Dasari, CF Ditelberg, J Dietrick, J Drew, L Durgavich, B Easterling, C Henning, A Hilborn, EK Karlsson, M Kissel, J Kobylecky, J Krell, DN Lee, KM Lesciotto, KL Lewton, JE Light, J Martin, A Murphy, W Nickley, A Núñez-de la Mora, O Pellicer, V Pellicer, AM Perry, SG Schuttler, AC Stone, B Tanis, J Weber, M Wilson, E Willcocks, CN Anderson#. March Mammal Madness: The Power of Science as Narrative. eLife 10:e65066.
2020 Vai S, Amorim CE, Lari M, Caramelli D. Kinship determination in archaeological contexts through DNA analysis. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8:83.
2020 Castro e Silva MA, Nunes K, Lemes RB, Más A, Amorim CE, MillJG, Salzano FM, Bortolini MC, Pereira A, Comas D, Hünemeier T. Genomic insight into the origins and dispersal of the Brazilian coastal natives. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 117:2372-7
- NIH / NIGMS R35GM142939 — Principal Investigator. Characterizing Human–Pathogen Interactions and Natural Selection with Ancient DNA (2021–2026).
- NIH All of Us Research Program, Evenings with Genetics (EWG-PI-22-0004; 1OT2OD031932-01) — Co-Principal Investigator (with Bassent Abdelbary, Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, and Paola Giusti-Rodriguez). Dissecting the Influence of Perceived Discrimination and Genetic Liability on Mental Health (2023).
Courses
2026 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ASB 799 | Dissertation |
| ASB 792 | Research |
| ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |