Camila Carla da Silva Caetano

The driving motif behind my work is to understand the mechanisms of emergent viruses cause disease and improve the development of new anti-viral and/or vaccines. My career has ranged from biochemistry to microbiology, and more recently, innate immunology and molecular biology. During my master’s degree (2014-2016) at Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), Brazil, I investigated the implication of oxidative events induced by Mayaro virus (MAYV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) infection. Then, during my PhD (2016-2020), my research was mainly focused on the investigation of MAYV and ZIKV animal models to understand viral pathogenesis. My research successfully identified that MAYV infection triggers hepatic inflammation and desregulation of redox homeostasis in vitro and in vivo, and the oxidative damage contributed to the viral-induced liver pathology in mice. Further in vivo studies from our group also tested Silymarin as an alternative therapeutic strategy that protected mice from liver damage, oxidative stress, and inflammation induced by MAYV infection. During my PhD, I also had the opportunity to work at the University of North Carolina (UNC)-USA, as a Visiting Scholar founded by the Brazilian National Research Council (CAPES). At that time, my research was focused on constructing and characterizing a new infectious clone of MAYV and characterizing the virus derived from this clone for its ability to replicate in cells and cause disease in a mouse model of MAYV-induced disease. I defended my PhD in March of 2020, and I started 2 years postdoctoral fellowship, investigating inflammasome regulation upon SARS-CoV-2 infection during COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of my carrer, I have published papers in high impact journals including Scientific Reports, Antiviral Research, Science Advances and The Journal of Infection Diseases. Currently, my position at Cleveland Clinic as a Postdoctoral Fellow has allowed me to improve my skills in infectious diseases, and gain expertise on mechanisms of viruses-induced inflammation and bone pathology.