Joana C. Silva | Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine
She is an evolutionary geneticist who applies evolutionary and genomic sciences to translational research of infectious diseases. She graduated in Biology from the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, and obtained a PhD in Genetics, from the University of Arizona, working on population genetics and molecular evolution of P transposable elements in Drosophila.
In 2000, at the time of the genomics revolution, she was a Fogarty postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, at the National Institutes of Health (NCBI, NIH), where she worked on the impact of transposable elements and point mutations on mammalian genome evolution. In 2002, her growing interest in public health led her to The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), where the genome of the first free-living pathogens were sequenced. At TIGR, she worked on the genomes of a variety of eukaryotic parasites, including those of rodent Plasmodium species and Plasmodium vivax, as well as species of Theileria, Cryptosporidium and several trypanosomatids.
Currently she is Associate Professor in the Institute for Genome Sciences, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and an Affiliate Member in the Division of Malaria Research, Institute for Global Health, UMSOM. She leads the genomics efforts of the PfSPZ Consortium and the East Coast Fever (ECF) Consortium, international, multi-institutional consortia that investigate vaccine efficacy and design in malaria and ECF, respectively. Current projects in her group focus on parasite genetic variation and vaccinology research in Plasmodium, Theileria and Cryptosporidium.
Hostess: Ana Paula Arez