About me

Contact

VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology
Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics
Ghent University
Technologiepark 71, 9052 Ghent, Belgium

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Background

For my undergrad studies, I attended the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro (UENF) to study Biological Sciences, graduating with distinction (magna cum laude) in 2019. Like many great universities in Brazil, UENF stands out due to its strong Scientific Initiation program that allows undergrad students to start a research project at an early stage of their careers. Thanks to this program, I joined the lab of Dr. Thiago Venancio as an undergrad trainee. Thiago has been a truly exceptional mentor, and he supervised me in a project that aimed at exploring transcriptional regulation in soybean (Glycine max) using gene coexpression networks inferred from a large compendium of RNA-seq set with >1000 samples (which later became the Soybean Expression Atlas).

Sunset at the whistle-shaped Convention Center at the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro (UENF). This building was designed by the renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

In 2020, I joined a Master’s program in Plant Biotechnology at UENF, still under the supervision of Dr. Thiago Venancio, where I developed a statistical framework to integrate data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and RNA-seq experiments, particularly using network-based approaches. These methods are now available in the R packages BioNERO and cageminer, both available on Bioconductor. We then used these methods to identify and prioritize candidate genes involved in resistance to biotic stresses caused by multiple pathogens and pests. At the same time, I was also leading the implementation of a much larger and better version of the Soybean Expression Atlas, now with >5000 samples. After ~5 years under the mentorship of Dr. Thiago Venancio, I was already a well-rounded and experienced bioinformatician at the end of my Master’s.

In February 2022, I moved to Belgium to start my PhD in Bioinformatics at Ghent University under the supervision of Dr. Yves Van de Peer, at the VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology. Since then, I’ve been studying the impact of gene and genome duplications on plant gene regulatory networks. For that, I use a combination of different approaches, including evolutionary genomics, high-dimensional (mostly transcriptomic) data analyses, and network science. Besides, I often find myself in a position where I cannot find software tools to do what I want, so I end up developing such tools myself. I am the developer and maintainer of >10 R packages, most of them available on Bioconductor, as well as web applications.

Aerial footage of the Technology Park in Ghent. Highlighted in the middle (in white/blue and gray) are the buildings of the VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology, where the Van de Peer lab is physically located. The Technology Park also hosts other Ghent University buildings, VIB centers, and biotech/pharma companies such as BASF, Sanofi, and Syngenta.