What brought you to the USA?
I came to the US because I wanted to understand why biomedical research is so successful in this country. I learned that money makes a big difference, but the most important factor is people’s mentality. Outstanding professionals are those that are dedicated, hard-workers and, above all, whose standards are always very high.

In what are you currently working on?
My interests lie in a parasite called Trypanosoma brucei, which causes Sleeping Sickness in people who live in Sub-Saharan Africa. This parasite is capable of escaping our immune defences by changing its surface coat. My goal is to understand how the parasite changes coats. As a scientist, I swing between my computer and the bench where I work with pipettes, toxic chemicals and microscopes. Sorry, there are no mysterious white fumes!

What conditions do you have here that you do not have in Portugal?
Professionally? Two main things: a critical mass of very talented people and regular funding. At Rockefeller and in most institutions in New York, there are simply a lot of bright minds. Unlike the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are a reliable source of funding that opens calls in a regular basis, which allows scientists to plan ahead and decide the best timing to apply for a grant. In my personal life? Restaurants from all over the world and the diversity of races, religions and languages.

What are your future plans?
Establish my own lab. Then I will be paid to do the research I want. ;-)

Why did you join PAPS?
Some friends were part of PAPS and told me about this society when I was in my 2nd year in New York. I found it was a great initiative to network with other Portuguese graduates in the US and to keep in touch with the reality in Portugal. I worked in Duarte Barral and Joao Castro’s Executive Committees..