Biography

Marcela F. Lopes received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. As a Ph.D. student (1991-1995), she conducted a productive research on the role of lymphocyte apoptosis in the pathogenesis of Trypanosoma cruzi infection, establishing a long-lasting collaboration with her adviser Dr. George dos Reis. The paper published in the Journal of Immunology was the first report of lymphocyte apoptosis in a parasitic disease. Marcela also worked as a Postdoc Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, USA. She has been an Associate Professor at the Carlos Chagas Filho Institute of Biophysics (UFRJ), since 1997, Professor since 2015, and a Career Investigator of the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq). Dr. Lopes has supervised M.Sc. and Ph.D. students and her graduate and postdoc students have successful careers. As responsible for a paper published in the top journal “Nature”, she received the Young Researcher Aspirin Award 2000 from Bayer, Germany. In a natural followup of her scientific projects, she is currently investigating how pharmacologic or genetic inhibition of apoptosis and efferocytois may help the immune system to fight infections. Her research received financial support from national and international resources, such as CNPq, FAPERJ, and World Health Organization.