Professor Fábio Falcão works in the area of infectious and parasitic diseases in the Amazon through transdisciplinary research related to the pathophysiology of infectious agents, correlating with clinical, laboratory, imaging and rehabilitation aspects. Fábio completed his PhD in virology from the Evandro Chagas Institute, Brazil, in 2016 and postdoctoral internship from the postgraduate program in biology of infectious and parasitic agents at Universidade Federal do Pará (CAPES 6), Brazil, in 2020. He is a permanent professor in the Stricto Sensu Graduate Program in Parasitic Biology in the Amazon (PPGBPA UEPA/Instituto Evandro Chagas) and professor at the State University of Pará, Brazil. Fábio collaborates as a reviewer of the following scientific journals: Frontiers in Microbiology (impact factor 4235), Reviews in Medical Virology (impact factor 4221), Mediators of Inflammation (impact factor 3758), Microbial Pathogenesis (impact factor 2914) and American.

Professor Karen Fernandes holds a PhD in pharmacology from the School of Medicine at University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is a full professor at the Doctorate Program of Rehabilitation Sciences at University Pitagoras Unopar, director of the Institute of Education, Research, and Innovation at Irmandade da Santa Casa de Londrina, associate professor at Université du Quebec à Chicoutimi, Canada, and president of Londrina Health Cluster.

Research interests: clinical pharmacology; epidemiology; mental health; systematic reviews/meta-analysis; and rehabilitation

Lattes ID: 3747750904910701

Dr Paulo Emilio Feuser completed a degree in pharmacology from the Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense in 2006, qualification in industry from the Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná in 2008, specialization in industrial pharmaceutical technology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 2009 and a masters and doctorate in chemical engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) from 2010 to 2016. Paulo has experience in the field of polymers, biomaterials, nanotechnology/nanobiotechnology, preparation and characterization of biomaterials, pharmacotechnics, drug quality control and cell biology (cancer). He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in chemical engineering at UFSC, working in the field of nanobiotechnology (drug delivery systems - controlled release) and co-founder of startup PeptNano – Personalized Services in Biotechnology.

Research interests: diagnosis; peptides; nanotechnology

Collaboration ideas: I work with Professor Ricardo, who is the head of a research group in UNESC, a community university located in the south of Brazil. His research topics involve, mainly, bioinformatics, peptides, and nanotechnology, combined or not.
He has been working on these topics since 2000 when he initiated his graduation in chemistry and then, his PhD in bioinformatics. The focus of his research was about animal venoms, but in the last years, he has been collaborating with several other projects. Using bioinformatics and peptides, we are cooperating in the development of diagnosis of different diseases, such as malaria, Zyca, dengue, chagas, leishmaniasis, leprosy COVID-19 and other ones. Furthermore, a lot of work has been done in the creation of new vaccines and treatments for several diseases.
Besides that, recombinant chimeric proteins using predicted epitopes were produced to develop new diagnosis, vaccines, and serum to prevent and treat human and canine leishmaniasis and envenomation by spiders, scorpions, and snakes.
In addition to bioinformatics and peptides, we have been working with lipid, metallic, polymeric, and magnetic nanoparticles, using them in all kinds of situations. Metallic nanoparticles are being used to treat different conditions, as Parkinson’s disease, cancer, wound healing and leishmaniasis. The metallic ones were used to improve the diagnosis of COVID-19 using peptides as antigen.
Therefore, adding the expertise in different techniques and the possibility to work in a large variety of fields, we expect to create a partnership to educate new students, collaborate in different projects and learn new techniques to use in our laboratory.

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2372-8945
Research ID: D-3202-2018

Dr Julie Flynn is a registered nurse, lecturer in nursing and PhD graduand. She has a broad range of clinical experience in acute and palliative care nursing in regional and metropolitan settings in the UK. For 15 years Julie has worked in a haematology/bone-marrow transplant unit in Brisbane Australia, providing specialised care to patients receiving radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Her main area of research to date examines infection control practices for needleless vascular access devices with a focus on vulnerable patient groups, such as cancer therapy recipients.

Professor Gislaine Fongaro is a professor at the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Center for Biological Sciences, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. She has a PhD in biotechnology and biosciences working in Basic and Environmental Virology, at the Laboratory of Applied Virology, in the scope of “One Health” with a focus on virus and bacteriophage technology. Gislaine works as a permanent professor at the PPG in biotechnology and biosciences at UFSC, being the leader of macro-projects in the Brazilian virology, virus and bacteriophage technology, and task force against COVID-19 network.

Research interests: One Health

Collaboration ideas: Biotechnology and Biosciences working in Basic and Environmental Virology in the scope of “One Health” with a focus on virus and bacteriophage technology.

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5596-3320

Dr Simone Fonseca graduated in pharmacy/biochemistry from the Federal University of Goiás in 1987, completed her master in basic and applied immunology from the University of São Paulo in 1997 and her PhD in immunology from the University of São Paulo in 2002. Simone has a postdoctoral degree from the University of Montreal, Canada (2007–2009) and she worked as a researcher at the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute in the US from 2010 to 2011.

Since 2012, Simone is associate professor of immunology at the Institute of Tropical Pathology and Public Health at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil. She has experience in the field of immunology, with an emphasis on cellular immunology, working mainly on the following topics: COVID-19, HIV, epitopes, T lymphocytes, immunological memory, negative regulators of the immune response; Chagas disease; Zika virus infection.

Research interests: immunology; immune response in COVID-19

Collaboration ideas: I hope to establish a collaboration with Australian researchers to exchange experiences in COVID-19 research and develop collaborative work with a special focus on the long COVID-19. The factors that trigger the severe forms, the different clinical manifestations, and the pathophysiology of late impairments (COVID-long), have not yet been fully understood. Patients who had COVID-19 return to the hospital with different pathologies such as myocarditis, pneumonia, renal dysfunction, cognitive alterations, among others. The study of long COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 syndrome can be rich and interesting themes for collaborative research for both countries and the institutions involved, addressing both the immune response (humoral and cellular), gene and metabolic signatures and possible therapeutic targets.

Our expectation is for a productive and long-term partnership, investigations that contribute to new discoveries, possibilities for the exchange of students and researchers, internationalization of the institutions involved and that, over time, can expand to other topics of common interest. We have a cohort of COVID-19 patients who developed distinct severity of diseases and are followed up. So, we also have a cohort of vaccines. e can evaluate the immune responses post-vaccination considering the differents vaccine taken. I will be interesting to compare these responses between the Brazilian and Australian cohorts.

Researcher ID: U-9278-2019
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5126-6306
Lattes ID: 3823367099967701

Dr Lucas Gazarini graduated in pharmacy (clinical analysis) at Universidade Estadual de Maringá in 2008, master’s in Pharmacology at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) in 2011 and PhD in Pharmacology at UFSC in 2015, in Brazil. Lucas has experience in pharmacology, focusing on neuropsicopharmacology and is researching on the following subjects: aversive memories, defensive behaviours, psychiatry and cannabinoids.

Research interests: neuroscience; neuropsychopharmacology

Collaboration ideas: Exchange of students and techniques between laboratories and research institutions; establish Brazilian arms of multicenter research

Website: Falandofarmacologia.ufms.br
Lattes ID: 5145465424080347

Dr Danielle Gleeson RN RM MMid is the acting director for the midwifery program at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and recently completed her PhD on childbearing women’s use of social media. Danielle has 21 years of clinical and teaching experience in the midwifery profession. She is passionate about improving midwifery care to ensure midwives foster partnerships with childbearing women and respect the ability and need of women to be self-determining in their pregnancy, birth and motherhood.

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6620-5613

Dr Daniel Gomes is associate professor of immunology and a faculty member for Infectious Diseases Program at Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Brazil, since 2010. He has been involved in the Leishmania immunology research field for the past 15 years, first on projects regarding vaccine and adjuvants development. Currently, Daniel‘s research focus pursues the understanding of the basis for memory T cells development, as well as understanding the impact of highly differentiated T cells in the pathogenesis of human cutaneous leishmaniasis and COVID-19. In this scenario, the key observation that he has made on T cell differentiation includes the first demonstration of an in vivo pathogenic role for senescent T cells. Work from Daniel’s lab has identified multiple functional defects in T cells during human cutaneous leishmaniasis that progressively differentiate towards a replicative end-stage, imposed by telomere erosion. In addition, more recent work in collaboration with Professor Arne Akbar from University College London has shown that cell metabolism and senescence are linked by the same downstream signalling pathways that alter T cell function. Daniel’s research projects have been sponsored by several Brazilian funding agencies, including the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), Health Ministry, Espirito Santo State Research Funding Agency, Newton Fund and Medical Research Council, UK. His studies involve a deeply worldwide collaborative network.

Research interests: immunology; infectious disease

Collaboration ideas: We seek to increase our network of collaborators, who are interested in leukocyte development during infectious diseases.

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Gomes-38

Dr Margarete Gomes has a doctorate degree in sciences – concentrating in the biology of infectious and parasitic agents – from the Federal University of Pará in 2006. She is a specialist in planning and evaluation of public policies from Faculdade SEAMA (2007). Margarete has qualification in industrial pharmacy from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in 1990 and graduated in pharmacy from the Federal University of Pará in 1988. She has experience in the preparation and management of public projects and fundraising, in the area of public health, communicable diseases, clinical trials, laboratory planning, drug quality control, serum and plasma drug dosage, with an emphasis on antimalarials and therapeutic evaluation of effectiveness of antimalarials and scientific projects focused on health in the Brazilian French Guiana border. Margarete is a Professor accredited to the bank of facilitators of the School of Public Administration of Amapá, and is currently staff of the Government of the State of Amapá, as a pharmacist and researcher at the Superintendency of Health Surveillance SVS/AP. She is also a tutor and advisor in the Specialization Course in Field Epidemiology (EPISUS/Fiocruz/MS) - Intermediate level.

Research interests: Saúde Pública

Collaboration ideas: Possibilidades de colaborar no tópico One Health, no contexto da vigilância em saúde, vigilância de fronteiras internacionais e as políticas públicas, visando pesquisar o potencial surgimento de novas zoonoses (decorrentes de vírus, bactérias e fungos) que saltam de seus repositórios para outros animais, incluindo o homem. Destacando a importância do monitoramento e trocas de informações para reduzir o risco de novas epidemias/pandemias e alcançar melhores resultados na saúde pública. Em particular a ação antrópica no meio ambiente e doenças emergentes e controle de zoonoses.
Assim como, sobre gestão governamental exitosas no enfrentamento a pandemia da COVID-19, bem como, para visualizar novos caminhos de implementação de políticas públicas e sobre o impacto da COVID-19 sobre comunidades indígenas e grupos vulneráveis da população, interesse para a região amazônica.

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Margarete-Gomes/
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2949-8135
Lattes ID: 2486089375188209