Dr Taissa Ricciardi-Jorge

Taissa graduated in Pharmacy at UFPR (Brazil). While completing her undergraduate studies she became interested in virology and developed projects in antiviral research. After that, she joined Dr Claudia N.D. dos Santos’ research group at Fiocruz (Brazil) where she completed her MSc in Bioscience & Biotechnology, developing serological tests for Yellow fever virus. 

In 2012 she completed the diploma in Clinical Virology at the Pasteur Institute (France). 

From 2013 to 2017, back at Fiocruz as research assistant, Taissa has worked in several research projects, including:
(i) development and validation of serological tests for robo- and arbovirus; 
(ii) seroepidemiological monitoring of Hantavirus circulation in the state of Parana (Brazil);
(iii) development of vector vaccine for avian diseases;
(iv) isolation of wild zoonotic viruses. 

From 2013 to 2016 she worked as lecturer of Molecular Biology at SENAI-PR (Brazil).

From 2017 to 2020 Taissa did her PhD in Pharmacology with Dr Daniel Mansur at UFSC (Brazil) studying cellular control of the translation machinery in response to Flavivirus infections. During her PhD studies she also worked with Dr Brian Ferguson at the University of Cambridge (UK) studying the role of DNA-damage machinery during HSV replication.

In 2021 Taissa joined Dr Trevor Sweeney’s research group as Postdoctoral Research Scientist at The Pirbright Institute to study the replication of positive-sense RNA viruses and the interaction of their genome with host cells.