Isabel L. Maurício

Isabel L. Maurício is Assistant Professor of Medical Parasitology, at the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, NOVA University Lisbon (IHMT / UNL), since 2010, until then she was a Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of London, UK. She has a degree in Biology from the University of Lisbon, Faculty of Sciences, Portugal, and a PhD in Infectious and Tropical Diseases from the LSHTM.

Isabel teaches in the areas of Medical Helminthology and Parasitology, as well as Molecular Epidemiology, and she currently coordinates 5 Study Units in MSc and PhD courses. She coordinated the PhD in Human Genetics and Infectious Diseases at IHMT/UNL (2015-18), which she developed with two colleagues, and was deputy Course Director of Distance Learning MSc Infectious Diseases at LSHTM. Isabel has supervised several post-graduate students (completed: 1 post-doctoral, 3 PhD and 13 MSc) and currently supervises 2 PhD students and 8 MSc students, having been jury member for five post-graduate theses.

Isabel has coordinated two projects and has participated, including as co-coordinator, in several research projects, funded by the European Commission, Wellcome Trust and FCT, as well as the Elsevier Foundation and the Gulbenkian Foundation. Since 2021 she has been a Section Editor for Gene (Elsevier), and she is an Editor in other journals, with extensive reviewer activity for publications and research projects.

Isabel is also interested in broader topics related to academia and research. She leads a network of Portuguese-speaking women scientists in African countries. She is a member of the NOVA Academic Council NOVA for The Globe (https://sustainability.unl.pt/), as well as a member of the working group “Collaborative network in Socio-Territorial Innovation” (InovST) (https://www.unl.pt/en/inovacao/inovacao-socioterritorial/).

Her research activities were, at LSHTM, mainly on leishmaniasis, having specialized in topics related to genetic diversity and recombination. She developed molecular typing methods for Leishmania, including the first MLST scheme, and carried out phylogenetic studies, as well as population genetics.

At IHMT, Isabel’s activity has expanded to helminths, mainly soil transmitted helminths, filarial worms, Fasciola hepatica and other trematodes and their intermediate hosts. Isabel currently works in molecular epidemiology, particularly of helminths and Leishmania, their life cycles and recombination, and isothermal amplification methods for the diagnosis of helminths.

Her current focus of research includes environmental DNA for the detection of trematodes and snail intermediate hosts in water, particularly passive environmental sampling.

Isabel has also contributed to research on health areas outside Parasitology, including virology.

Isabel Maurício is the author of 49 articles with scientific arbitration and three book chapters. H index: 29;

https://www.cienciavitae.pt/1312-B802-31B3

http://www.researcherid.com/rid/H-5272-2011

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=6603039567

https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/603892/overview

1. Carinton D, Teodósio R, Belo S, L Maurício I. Strongyloides stercoralis in Low-Income Immigrants from Portuguese Speaking African Countries in Lisbon, Portugal. Acta Med Port. 2024 Sep 2;37(9):668-669. doi: 10.20344/amp.21782
2. Bispo MT, Calado M, Maurício IL, Ferreira PM, Belo S. Zoonotic Threats: The (Re)emergence of Cercarial Dermatitis, Its Dynamics, and Impact in Europe. Pathogens. 2024 Mar 26;13(4):282. doi: 10.3390/pathogens13040282
3. Franssen SU, Durrant C, Stark O, Moser B, Downing T, Imamura H, Dujardin JC, Sanders MJ, Mauricio I, Miles MA, Schnur LF, Jaffe CL, Nasereddin A, Schallig H, Yeo M, Bhattacharyya T, Alam MZ, Berriman M, Wirth T, Schönian G, Cotton JA. Global genome diversity of the Leishmania donovani complex. Elife. 2020 Mar 25;9:e51243. doi: 10.7554/eLife.51243
4. Baleela R, Llewellyn MS, Fitzpatrick S, Kuhls K, Schönian G, Miles MA, Mauricio IL. Leishmania donovani populations in Eastern Sudan: temporal structuring and a link between human and canine transmission. Parasit Vectors. 2014 Nov 20;7:496. doi: 10.1186/s13071-014-0496-4
5. Schönian G, Mauricio I, Cupolillo E. Is it time to revise the nomenclature of Leishmania? Trends Parasitol. 2010 Oct;26(10):466-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2010.06.013