Vagner Fonseca, PhD, Bahia State University, Brazil
Dr Fonseca is a Professor of computer science at the Bahia State University (UNEB), with a multidisciplinary background that bridges computing, biotechnology, and bioinformatics. He holds a Bachelor's degree in computer science, a Master's in biotechnology from Fiocruz Bahia, a PhD in Virology from the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), and a PhD in Bioinformatics from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). As a bioinformatician focused on viral evolution and a data scientist, he has developed extensive experience working in collaborative environments, building and deploying advanced bioinformatics systems both in laboratory settings and directly in the field. His research and applied work have centered around the genomic surveillance of emerging and re-emerging viruses, including Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, HIV, Yellow Fever Virus, West Nile Virus, SARS-CoV-2, and Rift Valley Fever Virus. He is passionate about utilizing technology to respond rapidly to outbreaks of epidemics. Dr Fonseca is not afraid to go into the field and set up mobile genomic laboratories in challenging environments, often working on the front lines during outbreaks. His core skills include bioinformatics software development, database design, big data management, pipeline development, next-generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis, genomic epidemiology, phylogenetics, phylogeography, recombination analysis, transmission cluster detection, and the use of high-performance and cloud computing for data-intensive projects. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with international research groups, contributing to global efforts in genomic surveillance. He is deeply committed to innovation in public health and building systems that make cutting-edge genomic tools accessible for outbreak response and pathogen monitoring in low- and middle-income settings.
Daniel J. Park, PhD, Broad Institute, USA
Daniel J. Park is the Senior Group Leader for viral computational genomics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where he is an Institute Scientist. Under the direction of Institute Member Dr Pardis Sabeti, Dr Park leads the genomic analysis and development of computational methods for viral projects at the Broad, including work on Ebola, Lassa, and unidentified viral fevers, and directs the implementation of computational pipelines for analysis of viral genomic data, which is routinely utilized by academic and public health partners globally. His work has focused on epidemiological and public health inferences from viral genomes in the context of epidemic diseases, including Ebola, Zika, Mumps, Hepatitis A, and SARS-CoV-2. He pursues studies of pathogen genomes, focusing on questions ranging from pathogen evolution to drug resistance, disease transmission, and epidemiology. His work is both multidisciplinary and multi-institutional, and he collaborates in NIH and CDC-sponsored consortia both globally and domestically, with an emphasis on laboratory partners in West Africa and the Northeastern USA. Park earned his PhD in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University in 2013, where he developed and utilized computational tools to identify adaptations in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, that enable it to evade modern drugs and global eradication efforts. He has expertise in evolutionary biology, next-generation sequence analysis, software engineering, high-throughput computing, education, and communication. Dr Park joined the Broad in 2006 and was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation in 2010.
