Dr Rafael Freitas de Oliveira Franca
Principal Investigator & Senior Researcher in Virology at FioCruz, Recife
Rafael obtained his Ph.D from Sao Paulo University in Brazil, with a strong focus on Immunology and Virology. The major focus of his research is to identify and characterize the participation of specific immune components on several infectious and inflammatory diseases. His primary focus as a researcher is to understand the participation of key molecules, such as cellular receptors and differentially activated signalling pathways on immune regulation and activation following infectious diseases.
Dr Lucia Brito Ferreira
Co-Principal Investigator & Consultant Neurologist at Hospital da Restauração, Recife
Dr Brito is a Neurologist and researcher based in Recife, Brazil, where she is head of her department at Hospital da Restauração. She is a specialist in neuro-immunological disease and is also involved in national guideline development and health policy in this area.
Professor David WG Brown
BIGlobal Steering Group Member & Professor of Virology at Fiocruz-Rio & Public Health England
Prof Brown's interests include viral diagnostics and molecular epidemiology. He has extensive clinical, research and public health experience in the UK, Brazil and India. He has served as Head of the WHO Global Specialised Laboratory for Measles & Rubella, and Director of the UK national Virus Reference Laboratory.
Dr Camila Pimentel Lopes de Melo
Co-Investigator & Senior Social Scientist at Fiocruz, Recife
Dr Pimentel is a Social Scientist and a Public Health Researcher at Aggeu Magalhães Institute - Fiocruz, where she coordinates the disciplines "Science, History and Method" and "Research Seminar" in the graduate program in Public Health. She is also the Co-coordinator of the Zika and Social Science Network. She has experience on Gender and Health, Sociology of Childbirth, Post-colonial studies and qualitative methods.
Lorena Cronemberger
Junior Social Scientist at Fiocruz, Recife
Lorena Cronemberger has a master’s degree in Sociology from Universidade Federal da Paraíba and now is doing her PhD at UFPE. During her masters degree, she became acquainted with public health matters, having done a qualitative study on post-partum depression. Now, she is a researcher at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) in Recife, Brazil. The main focus of her projects are mostly related to Sociology of health and gender.
Dr Anna Fajardo-Modol
Co-Investigator & Clinical Research Fellow at Fiocruz, Recife
Dr Modol is an intern training as a consultant at the Internal Medicine and Emergency Department at a small district hospital in Terrassa, near Barcelona. She has a special interest in Infectious Diseases, especially in tropical medicine after having done a course in this field in Hospital Cayetano Heredia in Lima (Perú) and the DTM&H at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She will be based at Fiocruz in Recife to assist with the implementation of BIGlobal in Brazil.
Dr Patricia Sequeira
Member of the BIGlobal External Advisory Panel
Dr Sequeira has a PhD in Infectious Diseases and Immunology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has also worked as a postdoctoral Fellow at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore. She is currently a Research Scientist at the arbovirus reference laboratory at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main focus of her projects are mostly related to Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever epidemiology and pathogenesis.