Pedro Curto, a junior researcher of the ImmunoHUB ERA Chair project at the Immune Sensing & Signaling Dynamics Research Group, recently received a Research & Training Grant from the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) to visit the laboratory of Professor Annemarie Meijer at the Leiden University, The Netherlands. Professor AnneMarie Meijer (Professor of Immunobiology and head of the Animal Sciences research cluster at Leiden University), is a renowned worldwide expert in developing and using zebrafish models to study host-pathogen interactions including the bacterial pathogens Mycobacterium and Salmonella.
With this FEMS research and training grant, Pedro Curto will collaborate with Professor Meijer’s team to establish and implement the zebrafish as a model organism to study rickettsial pathogenesis. Pedro Curto stated that “the success of this project will strongly contribute to a systematic and deeper understanding of the host-Rickettsia dynamic interactions and testing potential new therapeutic approaches to tackle these emerging infectious disease”.