iPSCs for Studying Infectious Diseases

Dr. Alexander Birbrair received his bachelor’s biomedical degree from Santa Cruz State University in Brazil. He completed his PhD in Neuroscience, in the field of stem cell biology, at the Wake Forest School of Medicine under the mentorship of Osvaldo Delbono. Then, he joined as a postdoc in stem cell biology at Paul Frenette’s laboratory at Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York. In 2016, he was appointed faculty at Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, where he started his own lab. His laboratory is interested in understanding how the cellular components of different tissues function and control disease progression. His group explores the roles of specific cell populations in the tissue microenvironment by using state-of-the-art techniques. His research is funded by the Serrapilheira Institute, CNPq, CAPES, and FAPEMIG. In 2018, Alexander was elected affiliate member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), and, in 2019, he was elected member of the Global Young Academy (GYA), and in 2021, he was elected affiliate member of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Current Tissue Microenvironment Reports, and Associate Editor of Molecular Biotechnology. Alexander also serves in the editorial board of several other international journals: Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, Stem Cell Research, Stem Cells and Development, and Histology and Histopathology.

• 1. The Application of iPSCs to Questions in Virology: A Historical Perspective 2. Transplantation Of iPSCs -Derived Neural Progenitor Cells Promotes Clinical Recovery and Repair in Response to Murine Coronavirus-Induced Neurologic Disease 3. iPSCs For Modeling Influenza Infection 4. Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Modeling of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Infections 5. iPSCs For Modeling Coxsackievirus Infection 6. Pluripotent Stem-Cells-Derived Oligodendrocytes progenitors to Models for Theiler’s Murine Encephalomyelitis Virus and Other Viruses 7. iPSCs for Modeling of Hepatotropic Pathogen Infections 8. Use of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSC)-Derived Neuronal Models to Study the Neuropathogenesis of the Protozoan Parasite, Toxoplasma Gondii 9. iPSCs For Modelling Chagas Disease 10. Induced Pluripotent Stem-Cell Derived Brain Endothelial Cells to Study Host-Pathogen Interactions with the Bacterial Pathogens Streptococcus agalactiae And Neisseria meningitidis11. Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Modeling of Salmonella Infection