Vera de Souza Gouvea

Graduada em Química Industrial (1967) e em Engenharia Química (1971) pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, com pós-graduação (lato-senso) em Engenharia de Produção, COPPE (1974), Mestrado (1978) e Ph.D. (1982) em Epidemiologic Sciences pela University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Estados Unidos. Fez pós-doutorados na University of Delaware, Newark, DE, na University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, e no Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, RJ. Convidada em 1986 a integrar o staff de pesquisadores do Centers for Disease Control em Atlanta, GA, trabalhou por 12 anos em instituições de pesquisa do governo federal americano (CDC, US Food & Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research) realizando pesquisas na área de virologia médica. Desde agosto de 1998 é professora titular do Instituto de Microbiologia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, onde foi chefe do Departamento de Virologia de 2002 a 2004. É revisora de várias revistas científicas nacionais e internacionais. Realizou pesquisa nas áreas de fermentação alcoólica industrial, desenvolvimento de métodos radioativos, imunológicos e moleculares de diagnóstico, epidemiologia e biologia molecular de agentes virais de gastrenterite e hepatite. Principais áreas de interesse: expressão de proteínas recombinantes virais, estudos da relação estrutura-função protéica, e bases moleculares de patogenia viral.

Obtained her Bachelor's degrees in Chemistry (1967) and in Chemical Engeneering (1971) from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, did specialization in Industrial Engeneering (1974) at COPPE, UFRJ, and her graduate studies in Epidemiologic Sciences at the School of Public Health, obtainig her M. S. (1978) and Ph.D. (1982) degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States. Did post-doctoral training at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, and at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. In 1986, she was invited to do research in United States, where she remained for 12 years, working in medical and molecular virology at several U.S. Research Institutes (Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA; National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD; Food & Drug Administration, and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC). Since mid 1998, she is full professor at the Instituto de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, where she was head of the Virology Department from 2002 to 2004. She has experience in Microbiology with expertise in industrial alcoholic fermentation, development of radiactive, imunologic and molecular diagnostic methods, molecular epidemiology and molecular biology of viral agents of gastroenteritis and hepatitis. Her current main areas of interest include: expression and production of recombinant viral proteins, structure-function relationship, molecular basis of viral pathogeny.