Alice Versiani

Just published! We followed cryptic CHKV circulation in SJ Rio Prrto for many years and alerted for an outbreak! The outbreak is ongoing right now. @create_neo @CREID_Network @Vasilakis_Lab @famerp @AgenciaFAPESP @funfarme @ACAV_ASTMH @sbviro journals.plos.org/plosntds/artic…

@MeganAverill @Vasilakis_Lab @KristinSloyer @create_neo Our all AMAZING women team! ❤️🙌🏻 (missing @KristinSloyer, that is abroad being awesome in the tropical forest!) #March8WomenDay #WomenInScience

Happy International Women’s Day from the Vasilakis Lab!

🧵📢👇@HHMINEWS is incredibly excited to launch the 2024 #HannaGrayFellows competition. $1.5M award bridging your postdoc and early career faculty years with the goal of increasing diversity in the professoriate 1/

What a group!. @create_neo has a strong presence @PanDengueNet with several talks & posters. Congrats to all and especially our Brazilian & Panamanian partners. @UTMBProvost @Virology_FAMERP @InstitutoGorgas @JeanCarrPaul @Rossi_viruslab @SandraLpezVergs @RafaelEliasMar1 @sbviro

@PanDengueNet fellows! Our @natyngridd is presenting now the results of arbovirus transmission and pathogenesis in diabetic mice model. @UTMBPathRes @Vasilakis_Lab

I'll be @ the poster section later today at @PanDengueNet to discuss our findings on SARS-Cov-2/DENV co-infection and our nanovaccine platform w/ some cool data in mice model! Posters are by the window, with a nice view of the city!✨ @create_neo @Vasilakis_Lab @Virology_FAMERP

Kicking off the 7th Pan-American Dengue Research Network Meeting with @Virology_FAMERP presenting @butantanoficial DENV vaccine data. Looking forward to a fantastic week in Peru! @PanDengueNet @UTMBPathRes

Influence of previous Zika virus infection on acute dengue episode pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37943879/ Already in PUBMED! @create_neo @CREID_Network @famerp @funfarme @icbufmg @CNPEM @PesquisaFapesp @ACAV_ASTMH @ASTMH @afversiani @Vasilakis_Lab

The UTMB delegation at V FAMERP - UTMB mtg. @scottweaverutmb (not in pic) @Rossi_viruslab @RafaelKCampos @afversiani @Virology_FAMERP, @KristinSloyer Rosie Steck, Elizabeth Davidson, David Walker and Bob Abbott (not on tweeter). @sbviro @create_neo @CREID_Network @UTMBProvost

@create_neo @Vasilakis_Lab @leegehrke @Virology_FAMERP I am honored to have been mentored by this group! And this is the only meeting able to bring all of you to the same place!!! Incredible!

Besides @afversiani giving an outstanding talk, she had an opportunity to meet all her mentors that shaped her academic career @Vasilakis_Lab @leegehrke @Virology_FAMERP & Flavio G. Da Fonseca (not on tweeter). Congratulations Dr. Versiani! 🖖

Back to Rio Preto to meet friends, drink good beer, and discuss science with this amazing community. Thank you once again for the invitation, @Vasilakis_Lab and @Virology_FAMERP!

We are excited to welcome @CREID_Network, @famerp @create_neo colleagues and more at our V FAMERP-UTMB symposium in SJdRP on July 25-28th, with an outstanding collection of talks and posters on EIDs. For details visit arbovirology.famerp.br. @ihii_utmb @ASTMH @Virology_FAMERP

A mind-blowing paper has come out today in @Nature In 2016, JC Venter Institute scientists trimmed a bacterial genome to its barest minimum required for life to synthesize what they called a "minimal genome" (science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…). Today, a group of scientists from Indiana University reports how that minimal genome evolved over 2000 generations in comparison to the non-minimal genome. The authors found that even when you reduce a bacterial genome to its absolute minimum where every nucleotide matters, the genome undergoes mutational events generation after generation as much as the non-minimal genome. One simply cannot stop the evolution. Just over 300 days of evolution (equivalent to 40,000 years in humans) the minimal cell has gained everything it lacked in fitness on day one in comparison to the non-minimal cell. When comparing the evolved traits between the minimal and non-minimal cells, the scientists found something striking. The evolutionary process increased the cell size of non-minimal cells but not that of the minimal cell. But that is not the striking part. The scientists were able to identify the key mutation that resulted in cell size evolution. And it turned out that the mutation that helped the non-minimal cells to grow bigger is the same that helped the minimal cells to stay smaller. Growing bigger had a survival advantage for non-minimal cells and not growing bigger had a survival advantage for minimal cells. So, the mutation had a context-dependent effect. This just demonstrates that the evolutionary effects on traits have no absolute direction. All that matter is what is beneficial for the organism's survival. The conclusion of the paper is metaphorically a quote from the Jurassic Park movie: “Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but . . . life finds a way". (scienmag.com/artificial-cel…) nature.com/articles/s4158…

Want to join my lab with a full scholarship? Send me a message!

@RafaelKCampos Once again, congrats @RafaelKCampos! You're such an inspiration to all of us! Looking forward to your next steps. Let's celebrate this time, ok?🍻

I am thrilled to share that my K99 application has been funded by NIAID!! I am excited to continue my studies on host and viral factors affecting the transmission of arboviruses, and to have the opportunity to start my own lab.

Performance of VIDAS® Diagnostic Tests for the Automated Detection of Dengue Virus NS1 Antigen and of Anti-Dengue Virus IgM and IgG Antibodies: A Multicentre, International Study mdpi.com/2198430 #mdpidiagnostics @diagnostic_mdpi @afversiani @ACAV_ASTMH @funfarme @famerp

This important research regarding Human SARS-CoV-2 infection and its effects is supported by @fapemig with our collaboration applying nanoscience. @GrTordesillas @gmjcosta @afversiani @covid19_cnpq @nanomedicinabr @BMCBiology @ufmgbr bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

Happy to be able to share this last year with Adam and be inspired by not only his brilliant work but also his terrific personality. We will miss you dearly, my friend. ❤️

SAVE THE DATE @fapemig @gmjcosta @afversiani @nanomedicinabr @GrTordesillas @sbfisica @embrapa @merckgroup @gnanomat @redenanosaude @INCTMN @mundo_nano @faperje

A postdoc in medical entomology is available @create_neo. Based at UTMB, will work in partnership w/ Brazilian collaborators for mosquito collections in various urban and forest habitats and participate in wildlife capture, sampling, and release.@ASTMH @ACAV_ASTMH @CREID_Network