Before graduating in Biotechnology at the State University of São Paulo in Brazil, I started my scientific career in the Laboratory of Pediatric Infectology at the Federal University, Brazil, under the supervision of Professor Isabel de Moraes Pinto.

In this laboratory I collaborated on some projects including study of immune response to vaccination in premature infants; monitoring levels of antibodies in immunodeficient patients using IVIG and evaluating the relative effectiveness of H1N1 vaccines. In the same lab, I did my MS degree with an emphasis on immunology.

Under the supervision of Professor Alejandro Katzin in my PhD at University of São Paulo, we finished the characterization of products and the corresponding enzymes of the isoprenoid pathway in Plasmodium falciparum. During my PhD, I also completed an intensive international internship (Universidad Nacional de Rosario), where I used methods to study the complementation in S. cerevisiae.

Following that, I was employed as a Forensic Scientist II at Quest Diagnostics of Brazil. In this position, I was involved with the development and standardization of drug diagnostics techniques in hair.

I was a Postdoc in Dr. Luckhart’s lab from March 2020-April 2022 and directed projects on the effects of compounds on malaria transmission in mosquitoes infected with P. falciparum and P. yoelii and verifying a hypothesis that a mutation in an essential detoxification gene product provides protection against liver stage malaria infection. 

As of April 2022, I am the Core Manager for the Interdisciplinary Data Analysis Core of the Institute for Modeling Collaboration and Innovation at the University of Idaho.