Angélica Thomaz Vieira is an immunologist with a degree in biological sciences from the Izabela Hendrix Methodist Center and a master’s and doctorate in immunology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. During her doctorate, she was at the Garvan Institute in Australia. Her post-doctorate at UFMG included a stint at the National Center for Scientific Research in Strasbourg, France.

She focuses her work on inflammatory responses and the bacteria that live in the human gut. But apart from the complexity of genetic sequencing, she considers motherhood to be her greatest challenge. That’s why she dedicates herself exclusively to looking after her son Rafael and her firstborn daughter Estela when she’s away from the lab. She is an adjunct professor and coordinator of the Microbiota and Immunomodulation Laboratory in the Biochemistry and Immunology department at UFMG and is married to a scientist.