University of Virginia Health System

Manuel Braga Neto is currently enrolled in medical school at the Federal University of Ceara, located in Fortaleza, Brazil. During his first year of medical school, he participated actively in IBIMED, as a Research Assistant under the supervision of Dr Aldo Lima, the Principal Investigator of the Infectious Disease lab. He worked on animal protocols such as intestinal morphology evaluation in mice and intestinal permeability assessment as well as training for cell culture migration and electrophysiology and DNA extraction. He is currently a Research Fellow in the Division of Infectious Disease under the supervision of Dr. Richard Guerrant at the Center for Global Health. His main research interests are intestinal cell culture, evaluating migration, proliferation and apoptosis as well as PCR, genotyping bucal samples from brazilian children to detect IL-8 promoter polymorphisisms as well as APOE polymorphisims. His primary goal is to return to UFC in Brazil to continue current research projects, train other students and fellows, and to utilize the science skills acquired at University of Virginia. He plans to contribute to the quality of research at UFC to build hope and research capacity in Brazil in order to ameliorate the diseases of poverty.