João P B Viola

João P.B. Viola is a Senior Scientist at the National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The long-term interest of Dr. Viola’s laboratory is to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inducible gene transcription in cell activation and transformation. The main area of investigation is focused on studying the role of NFAT (Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells) transcription factors in cell cycle progression, cell differentiation and apoptosis, and their relation to malignant disorders. Dr. Viola received his M.D. degree in 1989 from the School of Medical Sciences, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ); and a Ph.D. degree in Biophysics in 1998 from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. During the pursue of his Ph.D. degree, Dr. Viola moved to Boston (USA) and performed his research under the supervision of Dr. Anjana Rao. He was appointed Research Associate at the Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (1994-1996) and at the Center for Blood Research (1996-1997), Harvard Medical School, where he conducted studies on molecular mechanisms of T cell activation. João Viola returned to Brazil to join the National Cancer Institute as Junior Investigator at the Division of Experimental Medicine in 1998, where he started his independent research group. In 2000, Dr. Viola was appointed Associate Investigator and moved his laboratory within the National Cancer Institute, to the Division of Cellular Biology, where he is currently conducting his studies. In 2009 he was appointed Senior Investigator and Head of the Program of Cellular Biology. João Viola is a member of the Brazilian Society of Immunology (SBI), Brazilian Society of Cell Biology (SBBC), Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SBBq), The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and The American Society for Microbiology (ASM). During the term of 2014-2015, Dr. Viola was elected president of the Brazilian Society in Immunology. In addition, he devotes great attention to science education, serving as Chair of the Program of Research Fellowship in Oncology and the Institutional Program of Scientific Initiation of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (2009-present), and also as a member of the Board of the Ph.D. Program in Oncology of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (2007-present).