Ricardo Parreira

Ricardo Manuel Soares Parreira holds a position as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT) since 1998. He is a member of the Virology Group of the Medical Microbiology Unit.

In 1992 he completed his degree in Plant Applied Biology by the Faculty of Sciences of the University in Lisbon, and four years later (1996) obtained a PhD degree in Genetics and Microbial Physiology from the University of Paris (Orsay Campus) with a thesis entitled Caractérization du mécanisme de réristance aux phages par infection abortive codé par le gene abiB de lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis (Characterization of the Abortive Infection Phage Resistance Mechanism, encoded by Lactococcus lastic subsp. lactis abiB gene). After returning to Portugal, he held a one year Post Doctoral internship position at the University of Lisbon working of phage-induced bacterial lysis.

At IHMT, most of the work developed up to 5 years ago was essentially devoted to molecular epidemiology-type analyses, and focused on the study of viruses such as HIV, HCV, TTV, and GBV-C circulating in Portugal, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. However, as a result of a close collaboration with the Medical Entomology group, his core research has recently shifted to arboviruses transmitted by mosquitoes, with a focus on dengue. His studies have included the detection of dengue cases imported to Portugal from Angola (during the dengue epidemic of 2012). He was also involved, as a technical consultant to the Ministry of Health of Mozambique (supported by WHO), in the follow-up of the dengue epidemic in the northern province of Cabo-Delgado in 2014. More recently, his work with mosquitoes has led to the characterization of insect-specific non-pathogenic flaviviruses and negeviruses isolated from mosquitoes collected in southern Portugal.

He has published 43 papers in international, peer-reviewed journals [RESEARCHID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/I-2304-2012; ORCID: Scopus Author ID 6602129518], is co-author of more than 110 studies presented as posters/oral communications in scientific conferences, 2 chapters in internationally published books, and 9 others published in Portugal.

Up to the present he has interacted with more than 30 collaborators. He has also been a regular member of the Scientific Council of IHMT (current Vice-President), as well as the institute’s Biosafety Officer. He is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the PhD Program in Biomedical Sciences and Msc Program in Medical Microbiology.

See CV

• Detection and characterization of arboviroses transmitted by hematophagous arthropods (including mosquitoes, ticks and phlebotomine sand flies).
• Metagenomic analysis of mosquito viromes.
• Analysis of the replication of mosquito-associated viruses in insect cell-culture (including superinfection exclusion events).
• Characterization of the cytopathic effects induced by the replication of negeviruses in insect cell culture.

Team: Aida Esteves, Raul Covinha, Lúcia Figueira
Direct Collaborators: Mónica Nunes, Carla Maia, Carla Sousa, Paulo Almeida

1. Carapeta S, do Bem B, McGuinness J, Esteves A, Abecasis A, Lopes Â, de Matos AP, Piedade J, de Almeida AP, Parreira R. 2015. Negeviruses found in multiple species of mosquitoes from southern Portugal: Isolation, genetic diversity, and replication in insect cell culture. Virology. 483:318-28.
2. Parreira R, Sousa CA. 2015. Dengue fever in Europe: could there be an epidemic in the future? Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 13(1):29-40.
3. Parreira R, Centeno-Lima S, Lopes A, Portugal-Calisto D, Constantino A, Nina J. 2014. Dengue virus serotype 4 and chikungunya virus coinfection in a traveller returning from Luanda, Angola, January 2014. Euro Surveill. 19(10). pii: 20730.
4. Parreira R, Cook S, Lopes Â, de Matos AP, de Almeida AP, Piedade J, Esteves A. 2012. Genetic characterization of an insect-specific flavivirus isolated from Culex theileri mosquitoes collected in southern Portugal. Virus Res. 167(2):152-61.
5. Parreira R, Severino P, Freitas F, Piedade J, Almeida AP, Esteves A. 2007. Two distinct introductions of the West Nile virus in Portugal disclosed by phylogenetic analysis of genomic sequences. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 7(3):344-52.