Luis R. Saraiva, PhD

He completed a Licenciatura (BSc+MSc) in Biology at the University of Evora (Portugal). After, he became a Fellow of the International Graduate School in Genetics and Functional Genomics of the University of Cologne (Germany), where he received his PhD in Genetics (summa cum laude). After a brief period as a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), he worked as a post-doctoral scholar in the lab of Linda Buck (Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine 2004) at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle (USA). As he became an EBI–Sanger Postdoctoral (ESPOD) Fellow, he moved to Cambridge (UK), where he continued his postdoctoral training at the EMBL-EBI and the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Since October 2015, he is a Principal Investigator of the Metabolism and Diabetes Program at the research branch of Sidra Medicine. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center (Philadelphia, USA) and at Hamad bin Khalifa University (Doha, Qatar).

Our laboratory is interested in developing biological assays to unravel molecular mechanisms underlying specific neural and metabolic processes, and to understand how genetic variation can lead to their dysfunction and ultimately disease.
In our research we collaborate with clinicians and employ an integrative strategy combining a wide range of established techniques (e.g., molecular biology, genetics, and behavior) with omics technologies (e.g., genomics and transcriptomics), and resorting to the genetic manipulation of both cell and animal models.
Ultimately, we aim to translate our findings into new diagnostic and personalized treatment options for patients affected by neurological, endocrine, kidney and cardiac diseases.

Senthil Selvaraj, PhD