Lúcia Mendonça Previato (born 1949) is a Brazilian biologist. She was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2004 for her research into preventing

Chagas disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by ''Trypanosoma cruzi''. It is spread mostly by insects in the subfamily Triatominae, known as "kissing bugs". The symptoms change throughout the ...

Biography

Lucia Mendonça Previato was born in 1949, in

Maceió Maceió (), formerly anglicised as Maceio, is the capital and the largest city of the coastal state of Alagoas, Brazil. The name "Maceió" is an Indigenous term for a Spring (hydrology), spring. Most maceiós flow to the sea, but some get trapped ...

, Brazil and moved with her family to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

when she was 5 years old. She graduated from Universidade Santa Úrsula in 1971 and obtained her Doctorate from the

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public university, public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and r ...

in Microbiology and Immunology in 1976. She did her post-doctoral work at the National Research Council of Canada, in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

, in Carbohydrate Chemistry and then moved to the Department of Biochemistry at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, with biochemist Clinton E. Ballou. After returning to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1980, she set up the Surface Structure of Microorganisms Laboratory at the university's Institute of Microbiology, became a Full Professor in 1992, and directed the lab until 2001. It was then that she was named Director of the Laboratory of Glycobiology at the Institute of Biophysics Carlos Chagas Filho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In her research, Previato and her team discovered the mechanism that allows ''

Trypanosoma cruzi ''Trypanosoma cruzi'' is a species of parasitic euglenoids. Among the protozoa, the trypanosomes characteristically bore tissue in another organism and feed on blood (primarily) and also lymph. This behaviour causes disease or the likelihood ...

'', the protozoan that transmits Chagas disease, to bypass the immune system when it infects a human organism. This discovery earned her one of the

L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards The L'Oréal-UNESCO ''For Women in Science'' International Awards, created in 1998, aim to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers who have contributed to scientific progress. The awards are a resu ...

in 2004. She also received the

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) since 1985. Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics ...

in Biology in 2007 and the

National Order of Scientific Merit The National Order of Scientific Merit () is an honor bestowed upon Brazilian and foreign personalities recognized for their scientific and technical contributions to the cause and development of science in Brazil. It was instituted on March 16, 19 ...

(Comendador) in 2001.

Personal life

She is married to Jose Osvaldo Previato and has two children.

Selected awards and honors

* National Research Council of Brazil, Top Research Career Investigator, 1986 * Petrobras Award, National Invention Prize, 1987 * Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, 1992 * International Research Scholar, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1997 * Scientist of Rio de Janeiro State Award in Biological Sciences, 1999 * Editor-in-Chief of Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Science, 2003

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Previato, Lucia Mendonca 1949 births Living people Brazilian women academics Academic staff of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazilian biologists L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates 21st-century Brazilian women scientists TWAS laureates Federal University of Rio de Janeiro alumni