🇬🇧 Curriculum vitae (CV)

Education and Career Experience

Emilyn Costa

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Key research interests

My key professional interests include:

  • 🧫 Exploring the diversity of Mycobacterium species through a One Health lens, identifying them in animals, the environment, and clinical samples — part detective work, part microbial safari 🐾🌱.

  • 🧬 Using molecular epidemiology tools like spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR to understand how TB and leprosy spread.

  • 📊 Studying TB transmission with a precision health twist, powered by whole genome sequencing (WGS) — it’s like giving TB a DNA test and tracking its every move.

  • 💊 Investigating how mycobacteria develop resistance to antibiotics, and comparing what we see in the lab (phenotype) with what’s in their DNA (genotype).

  • ⚡ Evaluating high-performance, rapid diagnostic tests for TB including some that work directly from patient samples and are compatible with next-gen sequencing (NGS).

  • 💻 Developing GEMIBRA:, the Brazilian Mycobacterial Genome Platform, to support national disease surveillance.

  • 🧠 Promoting science and health education by creating educational tools and community engagement strategies — because science should never stay locked in the lab.

Teaching

Teaching-wise, I also gained experience in higher education between 2012 and 2014 as a lecturer at UFPA and UEPA 🏫, including through Brazil’s national teacher training program (PARFOR/CAPES) 📚.

Clinical trials

On the clinical side, from 2019 to 2021 I worked in the Bacteriology and Bioassay Lab at INI/Fiocruz 🧫, part of the city’s TB reference lab, contributing to research for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) and TB-Alliance as a scientist in diagnostics and clinical research 🧍‍🔬.

In 2021, I took the lead on the SMARTT study (Sequencing Mycobacteria and Algorithm-Determined Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment) 🧪, and now I coordinate a sub-study in South Africa focused on applying WGS for managing drug-resistant TB — it’s called PARR-TB, part of the broader GenPath Africa project 🌍 on pathogen genomics for public health.

Research in Brazil

Back in Brazil 🇧🇷, I co-coordinate the TB Surveillance Network for Northern and Northeastern Brazil (REVIGET N/NE), in collaboration with the Evandro Chagas Institute (IEC), where I’m mainly involved in lab training for WGS workflows, data analysis, and making sure no mycobacterial genome goes unexamined 🔍🧬.

I’m also a proud member of the “Geoprocessing, Health and Environment” research group at IEC 🛰️ — because understanding where diseases happen is just as important as knowing why.

Professional affiliations

TBG | Member since 2021

TORCH | Member since 2021

GenPath Africa | Member since 2023

REVIGET | Member since 2024

ESM | Registered Member since 2024

SBMT | Registered Member 2024

RedeTB | Registered Member since 2024

CV - Documment

My updated CV (on 08-JAN-2025) can be obtained here.