João Aguiar Macedo Teixeira

Research Interests

Anthropological Genetics Applied Statistics Bioinformatics Evolutionary Biology Population, Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics

Dr João Aguiar Macedo Teixeira

School of Biological Sciences

College of Science

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

I am a population geneticist focusing on the evolution of humans and closely related species. I work across a wide range of topics at the forefront of modern human evolutionary genetics, including demographic inference, comparative genomics and natural selection.

Currently, my main research focus revolves around human evolution during the Pleistocene, in particular the admixture events between so-called modern and archaic humans after the out-of-Africa and before human colonisation of Sahul.

I am expert on uncovering signatures of natural selection in the genome, in particular balancing selection, and continue to study how advantageous genetic diversity can be maintained for millions of years in natural populations.

Language Competency
English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
French Can read, speak and understand spoken
Portuguese Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
Spanish; Castilian Can read, write, speak and understand spoken

Date Institution name Country Title
2012 - 2016 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Germany PhD in Evolutionary Genetics
University of Porto Portugal MSc Forensic and Population Genetics

Year Citation
2025 Roca-Rada, X., Cuesta-Aguirre, D. R., Vinueza-Espinosa, D. C., Davidson, R., Ravishankar, S., Taufik, L., . . . Santos, C. (2025). Genetic transitions in the Neolithic and Bronze Age at Mas d’en Boixos (Catalonia, Spain). iScience, 28(7), 112871-1-112871-11.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1 Europe PMC1
2025 Davidson, R., Roca-Rada, X., Ravishankar, S., Taufik, L., Haarkötter, C., Collen, E., . . . Llamas, B. (2025). Optimized in-solution enrichment of over a million ancient human SNPs. Genome Biology, 26(1), 190-1-190-20.
DOI Scopus5 WoS4 Europe PMC5
2025 Purnomo, G. A., Teixeira, J. C., Sudoyo, H., Llamas, B., & Tobler, R. (2025). Benchmarking Imputed Low Coverage Genomes in a Human Population Genetics Context. Molecular Ecology Resources, 25(8), e70007-1-e70007-12.
DOI
2025 Singh, P., Teixeira, J. C., Weber, M. E., Bolch, C., & Armbrecht, L. (2025). Enhanced sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) retrieval from Antarctic diatoms. Marine Micropaleontology, 199, 102477.
DOI
2025 Roca-Rada, X., Davidson, R., Williams, M. P., Villalba-Mouco, V., Carvalho, A. F., Ravishankar, S., . . . Teixeira, J. C. (2025). The genetic history of Portugal over the past 5,000 years.. Genome Biology, 26(1), 248-1-248-39.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC1
2025 Maurer, A. F., MacRoberts, R., López-Aceves, J. M., Ortega-González, A. F., Relvado, C., Fernandes, T., . . . Valente, M. J. (2025). Mobility of populations in the transition from Muslim world to Portuguese Kingdom in the Algarve, South Portugal, 11th-13th centuries. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 17(12), 32 pages.
DOI
2024 Rohrlach, A. B., Rivollat, M., de-Miguel-Ibáñez, P., Moilanen, U., Liira, A. -M., Teixeira, J. C., . . . Prüfer, K. (2024). Cases of trisomy 21 and trisomy 18 among historic and prehistoric individuals discovered from ancient DNA. Nature Communications, 15(1), 1294-1-1294-8.
DOI Scopus9 WoS9 Europe PMC8
2024 MacRoberts, R. A., Liberato, M., Roca-Rada, X., Valente, M. J., Relvado, C., Matos Fernandes, T., . . . Maurer, A. -F. (2024). Shrouded in history: Unveiling the ways of life of an early Muslim population in Santarém, Portugal (8th- 10th century AD). PLoS One, 19(3), e0299958-1-e0299958-44.
DOI Scopus4 WoS3 Europe PMC2
2024 Singh, P., Teixeira, J. C., Bolch, C., & Armbrecht, L. (2024). Marine sedimentary ancient DNA from Antarctic diatoms. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 640, 112090-1-112090-9.
DOI Scopus4 WoS3
2024 Purnomo, G. A., Kealy, S., O'Connor, S., Schapper, A., Shaw, B., Llamas, B., . . . Tobler, R. (2024). The genetic origins and impacts of historical Papuan migrations into Wallacea. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, 121(52), e2412355121.
DOI Scopus4 WoS3 Europe PMC2
2024 Teixeira, J. C. (2024). Ancient DNA: a direct window into the human past. Antropologia Portuguesa, 41(41), 297-312.
DOI
2024 Burton, C. A., Kelley, D. I., Burke, E., Mathison, C., Jones, C. D., Betts, R. A., . . . Anderson, L. O. (2024). Fire weakens land carbon sinks before 1.5 °C. NATURE GEOSCIENCE, 17(11), 10 pages.
DOI WoS8
2023 Taufik, L., Teixeira, J. C., Llamas, B., Sudoyo, H., Tobler, R., & Purnomo, G. A. (2023). Human Genetic Research in Wallacea and Sahul: Recent Findings and Future Prospects. Genes, 13(12), 1-11.
DOI Scopus5 WoS4 Europe PMC3
2022 Collen, E. J., Johar, A. S., Teixeira, J. C., & Llamas, B. (2022). The immunogenetic impact of European colonization in the Americas. Frontiers in Genetics, 13, 918227-1-918227-12.
DOI Scopus10 WoS9 Europe PMC4
2022 Roca-Rada, X., Tereso, S., Rohrlach, A. B., Brito, A., Williams, M. P., Umbelino, C., . . . Teixeira, J. C. (2022). A 1000-year-old case of Klinefelter's syndrome diagnosed by integrating morphology, osteology, and genetics.. Lancet (London, England), 400(10353), 691-692.
DOI Scopus12 WoS10 Europe PMC5
2022 Souilmi, Y., Tobler, R., Johar, A., Williams, M., Grey, S. T., Schmidt, J., . . . Huber, C. D. (2022). Admixture has obscured signals of historical hard sweeps in humans. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(12), 2003-2015.
DOI Scopus18 WoS18 Europe PMC26
2021 Teixeira, J. C., & Huber, C. D. (2021). The inflated significance of neutral genetic diversity in conservation genetics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(10), e2015096118.
DOI Scopus331 WoS310 Europe PMC222
2021 Aguiar Macedo Teixeira, J. C., Jacobs, G. S., Stringer, C., Tuke, S., Hudjashov, G., Purnomo, G. A., . . . Helgen, K. M. (2021). Widespread Denisovan ancestry in Island Southeast Asia but no evidence of substantial super-archaic hominin admixture. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5(5), 616-624.
DOI Scopus39 WoS29 Europe PMC18
2021 Roca-Rada, X., Politis, G., Messineo, P. G., Scheifler, N., Scabuzzo, C., Gonzalez, M., . . . Fehren-Schmitz, L. (2021). Ancient mitochondrial genomes from the Argentinian Pampas inform the early peopling of the Southern Cone of South America. iScience, 24(6), 1-18.
DOI Scopus20 WoS21 Europe PMC9
2021 Purnomo, G. A., Mitchell, K. J., O'Connor, S., Kealy, S., Taufik, L., Schiller, S., . . . Tobler, R. (2021). Mitogenomes reveal two major influxes of Papuan ancestry across Wallacea following the last glacial maximum and Austronesian contact. Genes, 12(7), 1-21.
DOI Scopus24 WoS24 Europe PMC15
2021 Teixeira, J. C., & Huber, C. D. (2021). Authors’ Reply to Letter to the Editor: Neutral genetic diversity as a useful tool for conservation biology. Conservation Genetics, 22(4), 547-549.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2
2020 Williams, M., & Teixeira, J. (2020). A genetic perspective on human origins. Biochemist, 42(1), 6-10.
DOI Scopus4
2020 O'Neill, M. B., Laval, G., Aguiar Macedo Teixeira, J., Palmenberg, A. C., & Pepperell, C. S. (2020). Genetic susceptibility to severe childhood asthma and rhinovirus-C maintained by balancing selection in humans for 150 000 years. Human molecular genetics, 29(5), 736-744.
DOI Scopus9 WoS7 Europe PMC8
2020 Barquera, R., Collen, E., Di, D., Buhler, S., Aguiar Macedo Teixeira, J., Llamas, B., . . . Sanchez-Mazas, A. (2020). Binding affinities of 438 HLA proteins to complete proteomes of seven pandemic viruses and distributions of strongest and weakest HLA peptide binders in populations worldwide. HLA, 96(3), 277-298.
DOI Scopus87 WoS81 Europe PMC78
2020 Souilmi, Y., Tobler, R., Johar, A., Williams, M., Grey, S., Schmidt, J., . . . Cooper, A. (2020). Ancient human genomes reveal a hidden history of strong selection in Eurasia.
DOI Europe PMC1
2020 Roca-Rada, X., Souilmi, Y., Teixeira, J. C., & Llamas, B. (2020). Ancient DNA studies in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Genes, 11(11), 1-19.
DOI Scopus8 WoS7 Europe PMC5
2019 Teixeira, J., & Cooper, A. (2019). A ‘Denisovan’ genetic history of recent human evolution.
DOI
2019 Teixeira, J. C., & Cooper, A. (2019). Using hominin introgression to trace modern human dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(31), 15327-15332.
DOI Scopus34 WoS31 Europe PMC19
2018 Bitarello, B. D., de Filippo, C., Teixeira, J. C., Schmidt, J. M., Kleinert, P., Meyer, D., & Andrés, A. M. (2018). Signatures of Long-Term Balancing Selection in Human Genomes. Genome Biology and Evolution, 10(3), 939-955.
DOI Scopus92 WoS91 Europe PMC89
2015 Nogueiro, I., Teixeira, J., Amorim, A., Gusmão, L., & Alvarez, L. (2015). Reply to letter from Felice L. Bedford and Doron Yacobi. European Journal of Human Genetics, 23(8), 994-995.
DOI
2015 Nogueiro, I., Teixeira, J. C., Amorim, A., Gusmão, L., & Alvarez, L. (2015). Portuguese crypto-Jews: the genetic heritage of a complex history. Frontiers in Genetics, 6(FEB), 1-12.
DOI Scopus10 WoS12 Europe PMC7
2015 Teixeira, J. C., de Filippo, C., Weihmann, A., Meneu, J. R., Racimo, F., Dannemann, M., . . . Andrés, A. M. (2015). Long-Term Balancing Selection in LAD1 Maintains a Missense Trans-Species Polymorphism in Humans, Chimpanzees, and Bonobos. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 32(5), 1186-1196.
DOI Scopus64 WoS64 Europe PMC68
2015 Nogueiro, I., Teixeira, J., Amorim, A., Gusmão, L., & Alvarez, L. (2015). Echoes from Sepharad: signatures on the maternal gene pool of crypto-Jewish descendants. European Journal of Human Genetics, 23(5), 693-699.
DOI Scopus15 WoS16 Europe PMC8
2014 Key, F. M., Teixeira, J. C., de Filippo, C., & Andrés, A. M. (2014). Advantageous diversity maintained by balancing selection in humans. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 29, 45-51.
DOI Scopus81 WoS81 Europe PMC76
2011 Teixeira, J. C., Nogueiro, I., Goios, A., Gusmão, L., Amorim, A., & Alvarez, L. (2011). Mitochondrial DNA-control region sequence variation in the NE Portuguese Jewish community. Forensic Science International Genetics Supplement Series, 3(1), e51-e52.
DOI Scopus5 WoS6
2005 Vilarinho, L., Cardoso, M. L., Gaspar, P., Barbot, C., Azevedo, L., Diogo, L., . . . Jakobs, C. (2005). Novel L2HGDH mutations in 21 patients with L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria of Portuguese origin.. Human Mutation, 26(4), 395-396.
DOI Scopus32 Europe PMC28

Year Citation
2016 Andres, A. M., Dannemann, M., Teixeira, J., & Kelso, J. (2016). Balancing selection and adaptive introgression as sources of advantageous genetic diversity in populations. In AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 159 (pp. 80-81). Atlanta, GA: WILEY-BLACKWELL.

Year Citation
2024 Davidson, R., Roca-Rada, X., Ravishankar, S., Taufik, L., Haarkötter, C., Collen, E., . . . Llamas, B. (2024). Optimised in-solution enrichment of over a million ancient human SNPs.
DOI Europe PMC2
2024 Purnomo, G., Kealy, S., O’Connor, S., Schapper, A., Shaw, B., Llamas, B., . . . Tobler, R. (2024). The genetic origins and impacts of historical Papuan migrations into Wallacea.
DOI
2024 Purnomo, G., Teixeira, J., Sudoyo, H., Llamas, B., & Tobler, R. (2024). Benchmarking Imputed Low Coverage Genomes in a Human Population Genetics Context.
DOI
2024 Roca-Rada, X., Davidson, R., Williams, M., Ravishankar, S., Collen, E., Haarkötter, C., . . . Teixeira, J. (2024). The genetic history of Portugal over the past 5,000 years.
DOI

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2020 - 2022 Co-Supervisor Post-contact evolutionary immunogenetics in Indigenous peoples of America Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Evelyn Jane Collen
2019 - 2022 Co-Supervisor Human demographic insights from paleogenetic studies of American and Iberian skeletal remains Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Xavier Roca Rada
2018 - 2022 Co-Supervisor Reconstructing the Population History of Wallacea and Sahul Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Gludhug Ariyo Purnomo

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