Dr Alberto Amarilla Ortiz

Dr. Amarilla graduated in Bachelor in Science (Biology) at the National University of Asunción, Paraguay in 2003. He obtained his PhD in Immunology at the University of Sao Paulo-Brazil and currently is a research fellow at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at UQ. He specializes in molecular virology, immunology and vaccinology and has more than seventeen years of experience studying several medically important viruses that have caused huge epidemics among the human population such as Rotavirus (RV), Dengue virus (DV), Zika virus (ZV), Rocio virus (ROCV), West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV) Influenza A virus (IAV) and Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Dr. Amarilla has a vast experience with reverse genetic system of several positive-strand RNA viruses from five different viral families (Faviviridae, Togaviridae, Caliciviridae, Mesoniviridae and Coronaviridae), enabling the discovery of viral determinants involved in pathogenicity (PMID: 30886357, 34103499, 28317911). He has established several murine models for neurotropic viruses, (PMID: 33414219, 30715407, 29897990). He has since authored and co-authored more than 60 published research articles with over 1000 citations pertaining to the field of virology. In 2008, he was part of the team awarded with the highest scientific merit of Paraguay (National Prize for Science) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the public health for the Paraguayan population on rotavirus epidemiology and evolution. At his current position, he is part of the team that developed a vaccine candidate for SARS-CoV-2, which is currently undergoing human clinical trial 1. He also established a high-throughput virus detection assay which facilitate the study of SARS-CoV-2 biology at UQ and managed investigations to determine the immunological responses required to efficiently neutralize SARS-CoV-2 during the pre-clinical trial stages of the vaccine development (PMID: 33643253).