Bióloga pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) (2000), com mestrado (2021) e doutorado (2005) pela mesma instituição, ambos na área de Bioquímica e Imunologia. Pós-doutora pela Stanford University (Stanford Cardiovascular Institute/CA) (2015-2017) e Instituto de Pesquisas René Rachou (FIOCRUZ/MG) (2010-2015), na área de Biologia e Imunologia das Células-Tronco. Atualmente é professora Adjunta Visitante da Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC), orientadora de Mestrado na área de Imunobiologia das Células-Tronco e Terapia Celular do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Animal (PPGCA) e orientadora de Mestrado e Doutorado na área de Biotecnologia das Células-Tronco do Programa de Pós-Graduação de Biologia e Biotecnologia de Microrganismos (PPGBBM), ambos da UESC. Desenvolve pesquisa na área de Imunobiologia e Biotecnologia das Células-Tronco, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: células-tronco mesenquimais e de pluripotência induzida (iPSC), morfologia, imunologia celular e molecular e citometria de fluxo.
I am Biologist with M.S. and Ph.D. in immunology studying infectious disease, focusing on immune system activation. I have experience in cellular and humoral immune response analysis, developing research to diagnosis, vaccine and biomarkers diseases. The main diseases that I have studied include tuberculosis, paracoccidioidomycosis, schistosomiasis and, more recently, Chagas disease. These studies have included heterologous proteins expression s in prokaryote system, antibody measure, immune phenotypical characterization, study of immune system activation such as cytokines, cellular proliferation and reactive nitrogen and oxygen intermediates during infection, single nucleotide polymorphism on cytokines genes. Actually I have started investigating the mesenchymal stem cells and its function on immune system suppression. My research interest includes: 1- to study the adult stem cells and their function as immunosuppression to control the inflammation as well their use as cellular therapy associated to pharmacological drugs in the infectious disease; 2- modeling in vitro disease using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) as a new tool for understanding the mechanisms and screening of novel therapeutic strategies to control infectious pathologies. Therefore, actually I have coordinated a research to study the impact of mesenchymal stem cells in the immune system when in an inflammatory environment using the schistosomiasis as an inflammation model and their potential in therapeutic of schistosomiasis when associated to drug (praziquantel); and I have developed a research to modeling in vitro cardiomyocytes using human iPSC technology to study Chagas disease mechanisms and therapeutic. I successfully have supervised undergraduate and Master?s students, administered and obtained grant to developing the research projects. I have collaborated with other researchers in the immunology and cell biology fields, and produced publications from each project. Beyond the research I have actuated as a professor at university teaching lectures to undergraduate students in the health field, mainly immunology, cellular and molecular biology. My formation and experiences as researcher give me know how and motivation to develop science with quality, carrying out the proposed research project, and acting as top-level teacher in universities.
