Biography

Priscila Castanha is a postdoctoral associate at the Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh, USA; Assistant Professor at University of Pernambuco, Brazil; Research Associate at Aggeu Magalhães Institute, FIOCRUZ Pernambuco, Brazil; and a member of the Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group (MERG), Brazil. As an early career scientist with an interdisciplinary background, Dr. Castanha work portfolio has been focusing on merging individual- and population-oriented approaches to explore how inter-individual differences in immune responses affect the epidemiological pattern of arthropod-borne viral diseases of public health relevance, notably Dengue and Zika. Dr. Castanha has over 10 years of experience in virological methods and diagnostic tools for Flavivirus infection, notably in Plaque Reduction Neutralization Test. She has also good knowledge in epidemiological studies, including study design, fieldwork, and data analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.

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Research Interest

Dr. Castanha current interests are the development of in vitro and ex vivo models for understanding the immunological mechanisms implicated in the pathogenesis of Flavivirus infections (antibody-dependent enhancement), and the development of diagnostic markers of viral infections.