Barbara Nery Porto

University of Manitoba, Canada

Dr. Porto is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and a Scientist with the Biology of Breathing Group at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba since 2021. Dr. Porto obtained her PhD at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Toronto, Canada, Dr. Porto pursued post-doctoral research at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) working with human airway epithelial cell biology during respiratory syncytial virus infection. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of disease pathogenesis associated with respiratory viral infections and to discover new therapeutic targets to reduce respiratory morbidity caused by respiratory viruses. One of the goals of her research program is to uncover how respiratory viruses and their purified proteins trigger the death of innate immune cells and respiratory epithelial cells, and the role of cell death on disease outcomes.