About me
My name is Luis Felipe Ventorim Ferrão and I’m a Research Assistant Scientist at the University of Florida, working in collaboration with Dr. Patricio Munoz at the Blueberry Breeding and Genomics Lab. You can read more about my work on this webpage and also see codes, papers, class notes and talks associated with my research.
Goals
My main goal is to explore a wide variety of problems at the interface of Statistics and Genetics. It includes developing novel methods and software or learning something new compared with existing approaches. Results are mainly applicable in two crops (blueberry and coffee) and in two directions: the use of multi-omic data for (i) prediction and (ii) understanding the genetic architecture of complex traits.
Specific areas
- Association Mapping (GWAS)
- Genomic Prediction
- Linkage and QTL mapping
- Bayesian Inference
- Metabolomics and Sensory Analysis
- Blueberry Breeding
- Coffee Breeding
Blueberry Research Topics
Coffee Research Topics
Motivation
Coffee is a widely consumed beverage that drives a vibrant industry. Despite this importance, its sustainability is facing critical challenges including price volatility, limited access to genetic resources, the presence of new diseases, and, in particular, accelerated climate changes. Genomic research in coffee could unveil crucial insights into the plant’s biological characteristics, including disease resistance, yield potential, and quality attributes. Some important projects led by the University of Florida
Flavor to Cup (F2C)
We believe that investigating new genomic tools could leverage the development of a new generation of climate-smart coffee cultivars that combine flavor and are more resilient to projected climate changes.
- Goals:
- Assembly a high-quality C. canephora reference genome
- Dissect the genetic architecture of flavor-related traits
- Combine sensory, metabolomics and genomics into a single framework for molecular breeding
- Collaborators:
- Incaper (Brazil)
- Denise Tieman (University of Florida)
- Patricio Munoz (University of Florida)
- Marcio Resende Jr. (University of Florida)
- Christophe Montagon (RD2 vision)
Breeding for Climate-Smart Coffee Cultivars
Breeding for climate-smart coffee cultivars is a research initiative with the fundamental goal to support local coffee production. The underlying question are: could coffee be an alternative crop for local growers in Florida? If so, where and how?
- Funding: Support for Emerging Enterprise Development Integration Teams (SEEDIT)
- Collaborators:
- William Hammond (University of Florida)
- Lorenzo Rossi (University of Florida)
- Guilherme Locatelli (University of Florida)
- Ali Sarkhosh (University of Florida)
- Jonathan Crane (University of Florida)
- Werner Collante (University of Florida)
- Patricio Munoz (University of Florida)
- Marcio Resende Jr. (University of Florida)
Deep Flavor
Flavor and Artificial Intelligence could be integrated in the same framework, by addressing the following main questions: (i) can we have a better understanding of consumer preferences by combining traditional sensory panel evaluations and computer vision? and (ii) from a statistical standpoint, how are the main chemical components acting (and interacting) to create flavor preferences?
- Funding: Launching Innovative Faculty Teams in AI (LIFT AI)
- Collaborators:
- Raquel Dias (University of Florida)
- Denise Tieman (University of Florida)
- Charles A. Sims (University of Florida)
- Marcio Resende Jr. (University of Florida)
- Patricio Munoz (University of Florida)