Prof. Dr Walderez Dutra

Prof. Walderez  Dutra is a full Professor at the Department of Morphology, Head of the Cell-cell Interactions laboratory (UFMG), studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying of generation of protective or pathogenic immune responses in human tropical neglected diseases, especially leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. Her lab focuses on finding biomarkers of disease progression and severity and new immunotherapeutic approaches to control inflammatory pathology associated with Chagas disease and leishmaniasis.

She is currently part of the Scientific Advisory Committee of DNDi, serves as a consultant for the MRC, Welcome Trust, and Brazilian State and Federal Funding agencies, and is a CNPq fellow 1A. She is also the Secretary of the Brazilian Society of Immunology (SBI) and Vice-President of the Latin American and Caribbean Society of Immunology (ALACI). Coordinator of internationally funded projects, she has advised over 50 PhD and MS students, 90% of them are women currently working in high education and research institutes in Brazil and abroad.

Prof. Dutra obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry-Immunology with honours from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), was a fellow at DNAX Research Institute with Robert Coffman, former visiting Professor at the Department of Genetics at Stanford University and at the Department of Pathology at University of Cambridge.