Relber Aguiar Gonçales

Relber Aguiar Gonçales concluded his Ph.D. in 2018 by São Paulo University (USP), Brazil. His work focused on the development of genetic tools to manipulate Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, a fungal pathogen that causes a severe infection characterized by the formation of lung granulomas. Later that year, he started his postdoctoral studies at USP and the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Brazil. Because of his knowledge on the mechanisms of inflammation involving granuloma formation, he was recruited in 2019 in a highly competitive international call for a postdoctoral research position to work on the regulation of inflammation in the context of sarcoidosis in Carvalho's lab at ICVS in the University of Minho under the FCT-funded project "Innate Regulation of Granulomatous Inflammation". During this period, Relber Gonçales established several collaborative efforts with international laboratories in cellular and molecular biology (Alberto Mantovani, Humanitas Institute, Italy), immunometabolism (Thomas Weichhart, University of Vienna, Austria), and metabolomics (Coral Barbas, CEMBIO, Spain). His work during this period allowed him to develop innovative in vitro and in vivo models to dissect the biological processes underlying granuloma formation with unprecedented detail. His track record is currently mirrored by 34 publications (>255 citations and h-index=10; May 2023), two books, and eight book chapters, and he has been an ad-hoc reviewer for several international journals.