Marco Antonio Zago

Who is Marco Antonio Zago?

Marco Antonio Zago is a Brazilian physician and prominent medical scientist, who is active in the fields of hereditary diseases of the blood, molecular basis of cancer and human population genetics. Since 2007 he is also the president of the Brazilian National Research Council.

Dr. Zago graduated in Medicine from the School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo in 1970, where he received the M.Sc. degree in medicine and the Ph.D. degree, under the supervision of Professor Cássio Bottura, one of the most outstanding Brazilian hematologist and cytogeneticist.

After his post-doctoral training at the Oxford University, in the laboratories of Professor Sir David J. Wetherall, whose group was at the time establishing the molecular bases of the thalassemias, he returned to Brazil and started a research group with a major scientific interest in the genetic bases of hematological diseases.

This group soon attracted attention with the following achievements, among others:

⁕Demonstrated that the residual amount of HbF produced in adults is genetically determined. The molecular bases for this inheritance are complex, involving at least three loci, and are of importance for the treatment of hereditary anemias.