I am a physiotherapist (City University of São Paulo (UNICID) – Brazil) and scientist. I have beenworking with animal models for 19 years, with a focus on
neurodegenerative diseases, especially Parkinson’s disease models, and physical exercise as a non- pharmacological therapy to benefit the nervous system (Master of Science (Human Physiology) - Effects of physical exercise on the expression of glutamate receptors in the brain of rats. University of São Paulo (USP) – Brazil – 2009 and PhD of Science (Human Physiology) - Effects ofexercise on a rat model of Parkinson's disease
- USP – Brazil – 2013). In the last 10 years, I have focused on in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) as a tool to understand and evaluate functional changes in neurodegenerative diseases and other disorders.
For the last 3 years, I have worked as a postdoc at Aarhus University - Denmark, where I have been developing a clinical trial totranslate the findings from my preclinical animal model studies to human PD patients, allowing a true bench-to-bedside approach. The project focuses on the beneficial effects of physical exercise on brain plasticity of Parkinson´s disease patients, evaluated by PET and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). I am already an integrated and valued member of the preclinical team at AUH, where I have been training students in surgery, autoradiography, microPET analysis, etc, and I also have collaborated with the clinical team to develop my project.
