Angela Kaysel Cruz

Angela Kaysel Cruz is Professor in Molecular Parasitology at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of São Paulo (USP). She completed her undergraduate studies in Biomedical Sciences at USP and the Ph.D. in Genetics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1980-85), under the supervision of Carlos Morel. As a result of her postdoctoral training with Stephen M. Beverley at Harvard Medical School (1989-92) investigating the genetics of the protozoan Leishmania,  gene knockout was established and made possible in Leishmania. After her postdoctoral training, she returned to the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto to establish a laboratory at USP dedicated to contribute with the understanding of Leishmania genetic organization. She collaborated with the Leishmania Genome Project initiative and subsequently focused on studying post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in Leishmania. Cruz’s laboratory main interests are studies on (i) differentially expressed putative non-coding RNAs in Leishmania and their potential role in the regulation of gene expression and pathogenesis, and; (ii) Protein Arginine Methyl Transferases and their targets, RNA binding proteins, to understand their effect on gene expression and pathogenesis.

Dario Zamboni

Dario Zamboni is head of the Innate Immunity and Microbial Pathogenesis Laboratory at Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of Sao Paulo (FMRP/USP). During his Ph.D., he was trained in Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). From 2003 to 2006, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University School of Medicine, funded by a fellowship from the PEW Program in the Biomedical Sciences, where he investigated the innate immune recognition of microbes by pattern recognition receptors. In 2006, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Cell Biology at FMRP/USP. In 2011 he became an Associate Professor and in 2019 a Full Professor at FMRP/USP. He was elected Affiliate Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and Affiliate Member of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS). Dr. Zamboni is currently a CNPq 1B Research Fellow and works in Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Immunology, focusing on Innate Immunity, Microbial Pathogenesis, and in the Interaction of Host Cells with Intracellular Pathogens. WebPage: https://lpm.fmrp.usp.br/en/. Twitter: @ZamboniLab

Jeremy Mottram

Jeremy Mottram is Professor in Pathogen Biology and Director of the York Biomedical Research Institute at the University of York, UK. He trained as a biochemist at the University of Kent at Canterbury (BSc) and the University of Glasgow (PhD) before carrying out postdoctoral work at the University of California San Francisco.  He returned to Glasgow for further postdoctoral research in the newly formed Wellcome Unit of Molecular Parasitology, before developing an independent molecular parasitology research programme as an MRC Senior Research Fellow (1993-2003), being appointed Professor of Molecular and Cellular Parasitology in 2000.  He joined the Department of Biology at the University of York in 2016.  Jeremy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and recently a Pesquisador Visitante Especial, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The primary research goal of the laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms by which Leishmania and Trypanosoma parasites undergo cellular remodelling during their complex life cycles. The laboratory’s focus is on cell signalling pathways that are regulated by protein kinases and the turnover of proteins and organelles that occur through the action of peptidases associated with endocytic and autophagic pathways.

Adriano D. Andricopulo

Adriano D. Andricopulo holds a Master’s degree (1996) and a Ph.D. in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry (1999) from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) and University of Michigan (USA). He was a postdoctoral fellow (1999-2002) from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan. He is an associate professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Sao Paulo – Brazil and has experience in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, especially in the areas of neglected tropical diseases, cancer and biodiversity. He coordinates the Laboratory of Medicinal and Computational Chemistry, and is a member of the Executive Committee and Technology Transfer Coordinator of the Center for Research and Innovation in Biodiversity and Drug Discovery (CIBFar/CEPID). He has published 195 scientific papers, 20 book chapters and 1 book, and has served as vice-chair (2006-2008) and chair (2008-2010) of the Medicinal Chemistry division, secretary general (2010-2012), president-elect (2012-2014), president (2014-2016) and member of the council (2016-2018) of the Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ). He is a full member and executive director of the Sao Paulo Academy of Sciences (ACIESP) and research fellow of The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) – level 1A. He was chairman of the 46th World Chemistry Congress of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC-2017). Currently, he is titular member of the Chemistry and Human Health Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

Ariel Mariano Silber

Ariel Mariano Silber graduated and made his PhD at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences – University of Buenos Aires (1992 and 2000, respectively). Then he migrated to Brazil as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Department of Biochemistry of the Chemistry Institute – University of São Paulo (2000-2004), where he initiated his research on the role of amino acids in the biology of Trypanosoma cruzi. Later he became a fellow of the program “Young Researchers in Emerging Centres – FAPESP” in the Department of Physiology of the Institute of Biosciences – University of São Paulo. In 2006 he was hired as Assistant Professor in the Department of Parasitology – Institute of Biomedical Sciences – University of São Paulo. On February 2018 Ariel became Full Professor at this Department. Some people think that during this journey, he acquired experience in the area of metabolism and transport of metabolites, bioenergetics, mitochondrial physiology in protozoa, as well as in the discovery and validation of targets for the design of anti-parasitic drugs. He has serious doubts about this. The name of his lab is Laboratory of Biochemistry of Tryps – LaBTryps, and the slogan is “Drugs (for Neglected Diseases), Metabolism & Rock’n Roll”