Workshop

Dr Darlan Candido (ICL)

Darlan da Silva Cândido, PhD
Research Associate Imperial College London

Research Associate in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. His research focuses on the use of epidemiological and genomic data to understand the spread, transmission, and evolution of viruses. He is currently working in the Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group, under the supervision of Dr. Isobel Blake and Prof. Nick Grassly, applying mathematical models and phylogenetic tools to explore the dynamics of vaccine-derived poliovirus transmission in African countries. In 2022, he obtained a PhD in Zoology from the University of Oxford, with research on the epidemiology and genomics of arboviruses and SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil and other Latin American countries. His doctoral research was carried out within the Brazil-UK Centre for Arbovirus Discovery, Diagnosis, Genomics and Epidemiology (CADDE) and explored the early spread and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil, including the identification, reporting, and description of the P.1/Gamma variant of concern in Manaus in January 2021.

José Luiz Proenca-Modena, PhD
Professor and head of the Laboratory of Emerging Viruses (LEVE) at Unicamp

José is one of the coordinators of the area of Biomedical Sciences 2 at FAPESP. Associate professor at Unicamp, he currently heads the Laboratory of Emerging Viruses (LEVE, https://leve.ib.unicamp.br/), where his research focuses on the pathogenesis and phylodynamics of Oropouche virus, Zika virus, Chikungunya virus, and Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). During the COVID-19 pandemic, José played a leading role in mitigating the social and public health impact of the disease in Campinas city through molecular diagnosis, scientific dissemination, and the development of research that contributed to the understanding of new epidemiological, evolutionary, and pathophysiological aspects of COVID-19. Currently, he is conducting studies in the Amazon basin to understand the emergence and dissemination of viruses from the forest to urban settings. Additionally, he developed several infection models for Oropouche, Mayaro, Zika, and Chikungunya viruses, which have enabled advances in understanding the determinants of protection against different clinical outcomes. He has published 124 papers in indexed journals and authored three book chapters on virology and microbiology. He has already supervised 4 master’s students and 6 doctoral students.

Nuno Faria, PhD
Professor of Virus Genomic Epidemiology, Imperial College London

Nuno is Professor of Virus Genomic Epidemiology at Imperial College London, where he co-leads the Pathogen Genomic Epidemiology theme, and Visiting Professor at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Tropical Medicine. His research focuses on the evolution and spread of rapidly evolving viruses, including Zika, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, HIV, Ebola, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2. He has served on WHO advisory groups, contributed to the WHO SARS-CoV-2 sequencing guide, and worked on the EYE strategy for yellow fever. He obtained his PhD from KU Leuven (Belgium) and previously held research and teaching posts at the University of Oxford, including as a Wellcome Trust Fellow and member of the Oxford Martin School’s Pandemic Genomics programme. He currently leads the Wellcome-funded DeZi Network and co-leads the WHO-supported FEEVIR project, and has also co-directed major initiatives such as CADDE, ArboSPREAD, and ZiBRA. His work has received support from leading agencies including MRC, Wellcome Trust, FAPESP, WHO, and the Gates Foundation.

Marielton dos Passos Cunha, PhD
Professor of Bioinformatics, Intitute of Biology, UNICAMP

Marielton P. Cunha is a Professor of Bioinformatics with an emphasis on Microbiology at the Institute of Biology, University of Campinas (UNICAMP). He holds a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences (2012) and an M.Sc. in Parasite–Host Relationship Biology (2015) from the Federal University of Goiás, and a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of São Paulo (2019). He completed his postdoctoral training at the Institut Pasteur de São Paulo (2020–2024) and took part in the GVN Rising Stars Mentorship Program (2023–2024) under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Esteban Domingo. At UNICAMP, he coordinates the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Virology (LaBiV), where his research focuses on molecular evolution of arboviruses and virus–host interactions, integrating experimental biology with bioinformatics analyses, and supervises undergraduate and graduate students.

Ingra Morales claro, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Kentucky

Dr. Ingra Morales Claro has almost 10 years of experience in portable nanopore sequencing and infectious disease genomic-epidemiology surveillance. Ingra's research program is focused on developing novel methods for real-time, surveillance of emerging and re-emerging viruses such as Zika, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya, Dengue, Yellow Fever, and recently SARS-CoV-2, reducing the time and complexity of the methods so that they are more easily adopted by the public surveillance centres in the countries.

Camila M. Romano, PhD
Senior Scientific Researcher, FMUSP

Camila holds a degree in Biological Sciences and obtained her Master’s in Parasitology and PhD in Microbiology from the University of São Paulo. She is currently a Senior Scientific Researcher at the Laboratory of Medical Investigation in Virology (LIM52) of Hospital das Clínicas, FMUSP, and also affiliated with the Institute of Tropical Medicine.Dr. Romano has extensive experience in molecular biology, viral genomics, and phylogenetic analysis. Her research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics and spread of RNA viruses. She has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications and currently leads projects on arboviruses and viral discovery in the Amazon, Atlantic Forest, and Cerrado biomes.

Filipe Romero Rebello Moreira, PhD
Genomic Epidemiologist, ITpS

Filipe Moreira is a genomic epidemiologist and bioinformatician at Instituto Todos pela Saúde (ITpS), São Paulo, Brazil, developing pathogen-agnostic genomic surveillance frameworks and pipelines to strengthen public health preparedness and response through scalable, open, and reproducible workflows for infectious disease threats.

Lívia Sacchetto, PhD
Postdoctoral research fellow, Institute of Biology, UNICAMP

Dr. Lívia Sacchetto is a biologist with an MSc in Immunology and Infectious Parasitic Diseases (UFJF, Brazil) and a PhD in Virology (UFMG, Brazil). Her doctoral work focused on molecular surveillance of Zika and yellow fever viruses during Brazil’s major outbreaks in 2016–2017, including a fellowship at the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses (UTMB, USA). She later contributed to SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics during the COVID-19 pandemic and completed a postdoc at FAMERP through the NIH CREATE-NEO project, working on genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Oropouche viruses. Since 2021, she has been part of FAMERP’s Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences, mentoring graduate students, and has served on leadership groups of ASTMH and the Brazilian Society of Virology. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow at UNICAMP’s Laboratory of Emerging Virus Studies (LEVE), focusing on the characterization of emerging arboviruses in the Amazon Basin.

Mariene Amorim, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher, Tropical Medicine Institute, USP

Mariene Amorim is a biologist with a Master’s and PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of São Paulo (IMT-USP), where she works with molecular diagnostics, genomic sequencing, and viral metagenomics under a One Health perspective. Her experience includes studies on pathogen-host interactions, surveillance of emerging and zoonotic viruses in human and animal samples, as well as the application of next-generation sequencing technologies to understand viral evolution and dissemination.

Tabassum Iqbal
Senior Project Manager, Imperial College London

As the Senior Project Manager for the Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group at Imperial College London, I lead the strategic and operational management of a research portfolio focused on surveillance and diagnostics for viruses with pandemic potential. My role includes end-to-end project oversight, including budgeting, milestone tracking, stakeholder engagement, and funder reporting. I have extensive experience managing complex, multi-institutional global health research projects, ensuring that projects align with grant objectives, are delivered on time and within budget, and produce high-impact outcomes that support global public health priorities. Key Research Areas: Rapid diagnostics for poliovirus surveillance Epidemiology of polio eradication and endgame strategies Environmental surveillance for typhoid and other emerging pathogens My interdisciplinary academic background includes a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and an MSc in Global Health and Social Justice. Prior to joining Imperial, I worked across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East on global health workforce development initiatives, contributing to capacity building and health systems strengthening.

Sabine van Elsland, PhD
External Relationships & Communications Manager, Imperial College London

Sabine is an infectious disease epidemiologist and senior public and global health leader at Imperial College London, where she serves on the executive board of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and leads on external partnerships, communications and knowledge translation. With over 20 years’ experience in infectious disease epidemiology, health systems and pandemic preparedness, including extensive work in Southern Africa and with WHO, her research and practice focus on using advanced analytics to inform real‑world policy and improve public health responses to epidemics. 

Dabri Ohanu
Project Coordinator, Imperial College London

Esme Young
Section Manager MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London