João Pedro Moura da Costa Maia
Research Technician
My research interests have been parasitology, epidemiology, host-parasite interactions, genetics, evolution, biodiversity and conservation. These topics have long been of interest to me, as demonstrated by my academic background. My Bachelor thesis was entitled “Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in British wild mammals: a PCR approach”, and my Master thesis was entitled “Molecular evolution of blood parasites from selected reptiles”. Recently, I finished my PhD thesis entitled “Diversity, infection patterns and host-parasite associations of apicomplexan parasites in reptiles”, under the supervision of Dr. James Harris at CIBIO-InBIO/UP (Portugal) and Dra. Elena Goméz-Díaz and Dr. Salvador Carranza at IBE-CSIC (Spain).
My work involved the use of microscopy and molecular methods (conventional PCR and quantitative PCR) for detection and identification of hemoparasites in several host taxa, as well as a comparison of their performance and accuracy at estimating infection parameters. As well as the use of genetic data to place these parasites in a phylogenetic framework in order to increase the knowledge on parasite diversity and host-parasite associations.
At the moment, I continue my research in this field, with the prospect of using Next-Generation Sequencing for a deeper understanding of the evolutionary history of these organisms.