Henrique Manuel Condinho da Silveira

Henrique Silveira has a PhD in parasitology by the Imperial College, UK and currently his Full Professor at Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), where he is the Deputy Director for Science and coordinate the RD Centre: Global Health and Tropical Medicine (UID/Multi/04413/2013) recently graded as excellent by FCT. He coordinates an international PhD programs with Fiorcuz, Brazil and coordinates IHMT collaboration on the Biomedical Science PhD program CEDUMED, UAN, Angola. He is Visiting Researcher at the Tropical Medicine Foundation of Amazonas (FMT-HVD), Manaus, Brazil and holds a PVE grant from the Brazilian Science Without Frontiers program and has strong collaboration with tropical-Portuguese-speaking countries, being involved in activities related to the Network of the National Health Institutes from Portuguese Speaking Countries (RINSP/CPLP), participating in technical missions, promoting projects and workshops. HS research group is currently cantered on the mosquito response to Plasmodium infection and how it can be modulated by external factors, such as, drugs and immunestimulatory molecules, aiming at malaria transmission-blocking tools. They established that chloroquine can modulate mosquito response to parasite (Insect Biochem Mol Biol 2008 35:1124) and how antioxidant proteins, previously linked to insecticide resistance, trigger the mosquito response to parasite (BMC Genomics 2010 11:312). In parallel, studied the impact of parasite infection on mosquito evolution, through the analysis of immune-related genes variability (BMC Evol Biol 2010, 10:9). After demonstrating in murine models that oligo CpGs and Hemozoin are able to boost mosquito immunity increasing resistance to infection (Insect Biochem Mol Biol 2012 42:758; Parasit Vector 2015 8:12) is currently testing the effect of this imunostimulatory molecules in P. vivax experimentally infected mosquitoes (at FMT, Manaus, Brazil). Most recently, with collaborators have shown that vaccination against alpha-gal confers sterile protection against malaria in mice, suggesting that a similar approach may reduce malaria transmission in humans (Cell 2014, 159:1277). Overall, he has coordinated/participated in more than 20 national and international research projects with competitive funding, including one Bill Mellinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges. HS has over 45 peer-reviewed articles, 2 book chapters (Researcher ID: G-2229-2011) and successfully supervised 7 PhD students.

Summary: Henrique Silveira holds a PhD in Parasitology by the Imperial College, UK. Currently, he is a Full Professor at IHMT-NOVA (Lisbon, Portugal). From 2015-2019 was IHMT-NOVA deputy director for Science, and Scientific Coordinator of the RD Centre Global Health and Tropical Medicine (UID/Multi/04413), graded as excellent by FCT (Portugal Science Foundation) in the last 2 RD centers evaluations. Visiting Researcher at the Tropical Medicine Foundation of Amazonas (FMT-HVD), Manaus, Brazil. Coordinates the PhD programs Global Health and Tropical Medicine. Till 2019 represented IHMT in the Network of National Institutes of Public Health of Portuguese Speaking Countries (RINSP/CPLP) and collaborated with the DGS Cooperation Division. In this context, he developed activities such as institutional diagnostics and planning, development of strategic plans, projects, and training. He was involved in the development and implementation of the security insectary ACL3: VIASEF from the Portuguese Road Map of Research Infrastructures being the Coordinator of the VIASEF Scientific Committee and member of the Management Committee.Research: The research group he coordinates is currently centered on the interactions between mosquitoes and Plasmodium parasites and how it can be modulated by external factors. Their goal is to develop effective tools to prevent malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes. The group studies mechanism of action of molecules able to modulate mosquito response to parasite, increasing resistance to infection. Murine malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, Anopheles coluzzii and Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes are use as models using the full parasite cycle. Similar approaches using field mosquitoes experimentally infected with Plasmodium vivax is being developed in collaboration with FMT-HVD, Manaus, Brazil. At the FMT-HVD he also develops activities on the molecular characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi from the Amazon and its association with the eco-biology of vectors and Chagas disease outcomes. With collaborators, we have shown that alpha-gal vaccination confers sterile protection against malaria in mice, suggesting that a similar approach may reduce malaria transmission in humans. Currently we are studying the role of alpha-gal on invasion of host cells by parasites. A blood-free diet for mosquito rearing (patent WO/2019/198013) was developed with the financial support from Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. The diet has been used, since 2021, to rear An. coluzzii mosquitos in a blood free insectary. The diet is being tested in a collaborative effort with teams from Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Brazil (FCT-AGAKHAN/541725581/2019). Coordinates a field trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04419766) to test a spatial repellent as a tool to control Malaria. The project is a partnership between CIOB, Beira, INS Mozambique and FBA and in collaboration with Parque Nacional da Gorongosa and Programa Nacional de Controlo da Malária, Mozambique.Overall, Henrique Silveira has coordinated/participated in more than 20 national and international research projects with competitive funding, has over 60 peer-reviewed articles, 3 book chapters and successfully supervised 7 PhD students. See CV for more details.ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7939-772X; ResearcherID: G-2229-2011; Scopus Author: ID 6603923697; Ciência ID: 181F-63C4-F6B2; NOVA Research Portal