Fabiana Neves

Who I am

Having obtained my PhD in pathology and molecular genetics, I am now working as a post-doc researcher focusing on elasmobranch immunobiology, with a particular interest in understanding how pathogens shape a host’s immune diversity.

Where I work

I work at CIBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources – INBIO Associate Laboratory, which conducts basic and applied research into the three main components of biodiversity: genes, species and ecosystems. The main laboratory, where I am based, is located in Vila do Conde in northern Portugal.

What I do

For this project I will assess the diversity of chondrichthyans’ viral communities in species with different ecological traits. Characterising the virome will help to set a baseline for chondrichthyan viruses, using a metagenomics approach, while the application of techniques based on next-generation sequencing will provide a comprehensive and relatively unbiased perspective on the viral diversity in a given host. To characterise RNA viruses in several chondrichthyans with different ecological traits, my work in the laboratory will include extracting viral RNA from the target species, quantifying the RNA and preparing the next-generation sequencing library. After obtaining the sequence reads, I will perform different data analyses that will enable me to identify and characterise the different viruses.
At my laboratory we generally hold multiple lab meetings in which we discuss ongoing projects and help members of the group by providing feedback on their progress, troubleshoot laboratory and computational problems, and provide insight on methods, results and conclusions.