Mariana Vianna PhD

Mariana`s position at AbacusBio is as a Plant and Animal Geneticist.

She is passionate about genetics and how its underlaying affects import and economic traits in food production. Mariana can provide insights into genomic analysis from a breeding program population and use her expertise to pinpoint areas for improvement and to brainstorm ideas for problem-solving and innovation.

Her primary responsibilities are data analysis from a genomic point of view, identifying the best genotypes, assessing genotyping by environment interactions, identifying key traits that impact your product economically, looking into ways to manage diseases and pest resistance with the population, among other analyses that can benefit the target population.

Mariana has over ten years of experience in genetics and plant breeding, working mainly with crops such as soybean and maize. She started in green house stage by producing crosses and generating F1 hybrids, has extensive field experience, has done QTL to identify loci controlling insect resistance for tropical climates, is working on phenomics applied to plant breeding, and is creating vegetation indices correlated to phenotypic traits. Most recently, Mariana worked on investigating haplotype-based genomic analysis for trait improvement in sweet corn to attend to US fresh market demands, especially in genomic selection models.

Therefore, Mariana can relate to greenhouse nursery jobs, field experiment design, data collection, and bioinformatics coding for genomic analysis.

Her experience in sweet corn had her realize the importance to breed not only for yield, but also for quality traits for horticultural vegetables, such as flavor, texture, appearance, shelf life, and nutrition.

Mariana has helped identify key genes that are in association with important agronomic traits in sweet corn; moreover, in the studied population, haplotype-based genomic selection models could improve the prediction accuracy of some traits in 17% when compared to traditional SNP-based approaches. Which helps breeders make more informed decisions and accelerate genetic gains.

Mariana is driven by a deep passion for genetics and its ability to shape essential traits in plants and animals. What motivates her every day is knowing that her work contributes to improving food systems for both humans and animals, while supporting a more sustainable world.

Her approach goes beyond profit—Mariana values the broader impact of her projects on human health, the environment, and society. She believes that science should serve as a tool for positive change, creating solutions that balance productivity with sustainability.

One of Mariana’s core values is resilience, demonstrated throughout her career. She is committed to tackling complex challenges and delivering innovative, practical solutions that make a real difference.

Outside work, Mariana is a very family-oriented person, loves a good time with friends, exploring nature, and looking for a spot to paddleboard.

Of course, she is the one taking pictures of plants wherever she walks by; she can’t resist a good phenotype.