Helen PENHA has obtained her master degree in Genetic and Plants Breeding (Development of marking microsatelites in Passiflora alata) at the "Escola Superior de Agronomia Luis de Queiroz", University of São Paulo (Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil).

Currently, she attends the second year of Ph.D. in the same institution, where she develops her thesis on "Genetic-chromosomic maps of Passiflora".

She arrived in CNRGV in August of 2009 and she will be here till January of 2010 to construct a BAC library for Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa.