Marcia Aparecida Speranca

I graduated in Biological Sciences in 1995 and started my PhD program the same year. During this period, I dedicated myself to studying the molecular aspects of the parasites that cause malaria, where I acquired knowledge about molecular biology, infectious diseases caused by protozoa, and public health. In 1999 I began my career as a professor and researcher at the Marília School of Medicine, dedicating myself to epidemiology and to improving cultivation and molecular diagnostic methods of several pathogens, including Helicobacter pylori and species of Leishmania, Trypanosoma, and arboviruses. In 2009, I was hired by the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), after passing a public competitive exam. Since then, I have participated in different research projects in collaboration with Brazilian and foreign researchers, resulting in molecular structural studies of proteins from protozoa and viruses expressed in bacteria and insect cells. The development of a technique for extracting nucleic acids from insects, which maintains the chitin skeleton, allowed scientific collaboration with researchers working on landscape ecology and epidemiology of infectious diseases transmitted by arthropods. At UFABC I have supervised postgraduate students at different levels: masters, doctorate, and postdoctorate. During COVID-19 pandemic, I coordinated the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in the UFABC community using a technology of saliva self-collection on dry cotton, developed by our research group, for virus mass diagnosis by RT-qPCR. All the scientific knowledge acquired during my career, associated with the equipment and personnel infrastructure developed at UFABC, are now available for application in studies on One Health and, more specifically, on a new proposal for epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases of importance to public health. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)