MEET OUR TEAM
Dr. Edroaldo Lummertz da Rocha, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Systems Biology at Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. Dr. Lummertz da Rocha received training in stem cells, cancer and systems biology in the laboratory of George Q. Daley at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he focused on the development of systems biology approaches to reconstruct cell differentiation trajectories and gene regulatory networks to reprogram cell identity. In 2019, he established his independent research group at UFSC, Florianópolis, Brazil.
Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy from the Higher Education Center of Campos Gerais (CESCAGE), Brazil. Master's degree and PhD in Pharmacology from UFSC. Currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate Program in Biotechnology and Biosciences at the same university. Her research investigates how the bone marrow microenvironment responds to conditions such as cancer, obesity, and aging, with a focus on lymphoid and myeloid populations. Using murine models of breast cancer, she aims to understand how systemic factors remodel the hematopoietic niche to identify targets with therapeutic potential.
Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy from UFSC and in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from the same university. Master's degree and PhD in Pharmacology (UFSC). Currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate Program in Biotechnology and Biosciences (UFSC). Her project focuses on reprogramming breast cancer cells into dendritic cells (DCs) using nano-encapsulated mRNA. The goal is to reverse tumor immunosuppression and transform the tumor itself into a tool capable of activating an anti-tumor immune response.
Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy from UFSC. Master's degree in Pharmacology from the same university. Currently a PhD student in the Graduate Program in Pharmacology (UFSC). His project uses single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data to map the functional diversity of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and proposes a translational approach to functionally reprogram them through the in vivo delivery of CAR-encoding mRNA.
Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy from UFSC. Master's degree in Pharmacology from the same university. Currently a PhD student in the Graduate Program in Biotechnology and Biosciences (UFSC). Her work aims to understand how cancer systemically alters immune cell development, focusing on the induction of myeloid differentiation in distant organs like the lungs, spleen, and in the peripheral blood, providing critical insights into the formation of supportive pre-metastatic environments.
Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from UFSC. Currently a Master's student in the Graduate Program in Pharmacology at the same university. He works on two fronts: the selection of neoepitopes for the development of immunotherapy against triple-negative breast cancer, and the expansion of the CellComm software for cell communication and scRNA-seq analysis, integrating it into the Seurat ecosystem in R.
Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from UFSC. Currently a Master's student in the Graduate Program in Pharmacology at the same university. His research uses scRNA-seq data and bioinformatics to investigate how breast cancer can remotely induce the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells toward the myeloid lineage through extracellular vesicles.
Bachelor's degree in Information Systems from the University of the South of Santa Catarina (UNISUL), Brazil. Currently a master's student in the Graduate Program in Biotechnology and Biosciences at UFSC. His project consists of developing an artificial intelligence system, based on Transformer models, for the automatic analysis of cytopathological images. The goal is to create a tool to support the early diagnosis of cervical cancer, with the potential for integration into the Brazilian public health system (SUS).
Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from the Federal University of Pampa (UNIPAMPA), Brazil. Currently a Master's student in the Graduate Program in Biotechnology and Biosciences at UFSC. His work investigates how the tumor microbiome modulates cancer progression and the metastatic cascade, aiming to validate its potential as a source of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
Bachelor's degree in Nutrition from UNISUL. Currently a Master's student in the Graduate Program in Biotechnology and Biosciences at UFSC. Her work focuses on developing machine learning models using blood proteome data to classify different types of cancer from non-invasive liquid biopsies, with a focus on optimizing and interpreting results.
Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy-Biochemistry from the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. Currently a Master's student in the Graduate Program in Biotechnology and Biosciences at UFSC. With professional experience in clinical research and regulatory affairs in major pharmaceutical companies, his research interest is to understand the relationships between tumors and the immune system through the analysis of scRNA-seq data.
Currently studying Biological Sciences at UFSC. His project focuses on a meta-analysis to identify how systemic inflammation (caused by cancer, aging, and obesity) affects bone marrow homeostasis and differentiation patterns in the hematopoietic niche by analyzing scRNA-seq data. His role in the group also includes helping with marketing and social media.
Currently studying Biological Sciences at UFSC. His research aims to engineer a biomimetic "bone marrow-on-a-chip," a microphysiological system designed to recapitulate the complex stromal and immune niches found in human bone marrow. The primary goal of this platform is to provide a more physiologically relevant and high-throughput alternative to traditional animal models for the preclinical evaluation of novel cancer immunotherapies
Currently studying Pharmacy at UFSC. Her research focuses on reprogramming breast tumor cells into dendritic cells, which are key orchestrators of the immune response. By converting tumor cells into immune-activating cells, her work aims to overcome the tumor’s immunosuppressive environment and stimulate the immune system to recognize and attack cancer, opening new possibilities for innovative cell-based therapies.