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Biography |
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Dr. Oliveira obtained his undergraduate degree form the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Biological Sciences. He obtained a PhD degree at Texas A&M University, USA in Microbiology. His group’s current main activities currently involve the use of genomics and computational tools in collaborative projects with the academic community and to employ these as means of innovation in the private sector. Historically, the group focuses on schistosomiasis research. More recently several projects in genomics and bioinformatics in many different model systems are also being conducted. Dr. Oliveira is a member of the Board of ISCB and the President of the Brazilian Society for Bioinformatics Computational Biology. The infrastructure and knowhow accumulated in the past few years have permitted the group to collaborate in genomics and bioinformatics work with a number of groups in diverse experimental models. http://cebio.org/
http://bioinfo.cpqrr.fiocruz.br/
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Abstract |
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-Biodiversity in the Amazon, from exotic environments to biomining |
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-The Amazon is composed mostly of a vast flood plain. However, elevated regions also exist in the environment. One of these regions is known as Canga, an elevated field with iron rich soil. In addition to the field, due to the geological environment, ferriferous caves are also very common. Both are environments that harbor a number of plants and animals that are adapted or endemic to these habitats. The high iron content of the Canga also makes it of interest for iron ore mining. Therefore, in order to determine which environments are to be protected or made available for mining requires a deep understanding of the local flora and fauna. For this reason we have initiated a large scale taxonomic analysis aided by DNA barcoding of the resident species. In addition, we have been exploring bacteria in the mining environment with the aim of developing bioleaching and bioremediation technologies that are able to use low grade materials in an environmentally friendly manner. Mining environments are extreme environments where bacterial activities evolved to enable their survival using various metabolic approaches to achieve, for example, energy production. Bacterial activity in metal rich fields can be naturally observed by the formation of acid drainage, for example. Despite the isolation of some bioleaching bacteria the current knowledge on the microbial diversity and the metabolic pathways involved in this process is still limited, mostly due to the difficulty in cultivating the complex community that inhabit these environments. In this work we will describe microorganisms that have been identified in active mining sites located at the Carajás region, Pará State, Brazil. We have used 16S and shotgun metagenomics approaches to describe populations and functions. Shotgun sequencing pointed metabolic pathways relevant to survival in the environment such as such as stress response, sulfur metabolism and iron acquisition genes. Shotgun data also demonstrated the presence of known bioleaching bacteria such as Acidimicrobium ferrooxidans, Acidiphilium cryptum, Acidithiobacillus caldus, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. We have also characterized individual bacteria using two approaches. We isolated microorganisms in selective media and also conducted single cell genomics. Several genomes were sequenced and new members of the Chitinophagaceae were identified as well as species that is part of a new genus of iron-oxidizing Firmicutes: Acidibacillus. We describe new bacterial genomes and functions. Natural bacterial activities can be explored in mining operations in several ways. We describe two approaches established at the laboratory scale. We have developed a method for bioremediation of drainage sites at copper mines using a sulfidogenic bioreactor. This approach uses acid produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria to differentially precipitate metals. Additionally, we have been isolating endemic microalgae to be used as a carbon source to promote bacterial growth. The second use is on bioleaching by deploying a bacterium that oxidizes sulfur in a manner coupled to the reduction of ferric iron present in the mineral phase. This approach facilitates the recovery of associated metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese. We have investigated the use of bacteria in low pH conditions to conduct bioleaching on rare earth materials composed of goethite and Monazitic rocks. We have success |
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