Joana Duarte Da Rocha Pereira
Rega - Herestraat 49 - box 1043
3000 Leuven
Belgium
room: 08.A152
tel: +32 16 32 18 76 or +32 16 37 90 20
contact
Joana Rocha-Pereira studied Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Porto, Portugal. After graduating in 2007, she joined the group of Prof. Maria de São José Nascimento (University of Porto, Portugal) whose research focuses on the study of human enteric viruses (epidemiology, transmission, detection in food and water). Joana obtained a second Master’s degree in Clinical Analysis (2009) and a PhD (2013) for her work on the identification of small molecule inhibitors of the replication of noroviruses, the nr. 1 cause of foodborne outbreaks of gastroenteritis around the world. During this period, Joana was able to conciliate her research activities with a part-time Assistant Lecturer position, teaching Virology to future pharmacists, biochemists, etc.
In August 2013 she joined the group of Prof. Johan Neyts, at the Rega Institute. She optimized norovirus mouse models of infection in which she demonstrated -for the first time- that a small-molecule inhibitor is able to protect against norovirus-induced diarrhea and mortality. The more recent observation that transmission of norovirus can be prevented through prophylaxis of non-infected animals also constitutes an important step towards the feasibility of using antiviral drugs for the treatment/prophylaxis of norovirus infections.
Since January 2015, Joana Rocha-Pereira is a Marie Curie fellow of the William Harvey International Translational Research Academy (WHRI-ACADEMY), with the project STRONG (Small molecule inhibitors for the TReatment Of Norovirus-induced Gastroenteritis). She is involved in the FP7 projects SILVER and CCHFever, and in the Leverage project (IOF HB-14-00425) entitled “Development of potent antivirals for the treatment and prophylaxis of norovirus infections”.