Sofia G. Seabra completed a PhD in Biology (Evolutionary Biology) by the Faculdade de Ciências Universidade de Lisboa, in 2007. She was a postdoctoral researcher from 2007 to 2020 at FCUL. Since 2020 she has an institutional CEEC contract as Assistant Researcher on Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at Unidade de Ensino e Investigação de Saúde Pública Global of Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

She is Principal Investigator in the internally GHTM funded project ‘WasteWaterVir – Integrating metavirome analysis of wastewaters into tools for surveillance of infectious diseases’, and is a team member in two other ongoing projects. She participated in 8 other scientific projects, including 1 as Principal Investigator, 1 as Co-Principal Investigator, and 3 as responsible for project tasks. She supervised several post-graduate students and participated in evaluation committees in PhD and Master theses. She teaches Biostatistics in the IHMT Doctoral Programs ‘Biomedical Sciences’ and ‘International Health’ and Molecular Epidemiology in the NOVA Masters ‘Computational Biology and Bioinformatics’.

My research on genomics and bioinformatics at IHMT-NOVA integrates the field of global public health, with ongoing studies on worldwide Zika virus genomic variation and metavirome analysis of wastewaters. In the Zika virus study we characterized the genome-wide diversity and phylodynamics of ZIKV, to identify genomic footprints of differentiation patterns and to propose a dynamic classification system that reflects its divergence levels. In the metavirome study we will apply and develop tools for metavirome analysis of wastewaters, using the sequencing and bioinformatic infrastructures of GHTM, to analyse the viromes of influents of urban wastewater treatment plants to contribute to the surveillance of emerging diseases.