Information
Membership Number: FCA2107
Membership Type: Fellow
Division: Natural Sciences (Related: Biological Sciences)
Corresponding Email: celiaregarcia@gmail.com
Homepage(s): http://www.usp.br/garciamalarialab/
Present and Previous Positions
Professor, Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analyses School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of São Paulo
Adjunct Professor at Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neurosciences Department at Rutgers Medical School New Jersey
Fields of Scholarship and Research Interests
Our primary focus of interest is to elucidate how malaria parasites signal in the various stages of their life cycle in an effort to explore new venues for clinical intervention. To achieve this goal, we combine work on live cell microscopy with state-of-the-art molecular techniques. Our laboratory engages in the screening of synthetic and natural compounds aiming to discover new anti-malarial drugs.
Honors, Awards and Other Membership
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow 2003
Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) 2018
CNPq productivity Fellow 1 A (2019)
Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) 2020
The São Paulo State Academy of Sciences (ACIESP) 2020
Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 2020
Top Scholar Lifetime by ScholarGPS 2024
Selected Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TdvBzx8AAAAJ&hl=en
Other Information
Celia Garcia is a Professor at the Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analyses, FCF- University of São Paulo (USP) and an Adjunct Professor at Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neurosciences Department at Rutgers Medical School New Jersey; her international recognition includes serving as the President of the International Affairs Committee at American Society for Cell Biology-ASCB (2020-2022), Fellow of the ASCB, John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and member of The World Academy of Sciences, Associate Editor or/and on the board of the Journals Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, 2010- present; Current Opinion in Microbiology, 2014-present; Methods X, 2014-present; Current Research in Microbial Sciences, 2020-; Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, 2018-present; Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2019-Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 2020-.For the last few years, Dr. Garcia’s research at the University of São Paulo (USP) has made novel contributions to our understanding of the chemical signals that regulate the development of the malarial parasite. In a seminal paper using cell imaging and fluorescent calcium probes, Dr. Garcia demonstrated that the maintenance of a normal Ca 2+ homeostatic mechanism in malaria parasites within the red blood cells supporting the hypothesis that malaria parasites are endowed with a piece of molecular signaling machinery for using calcium signaling to control their cell cycle. Her lab is the first to measure IP 3 in physiological conditions in the presence of melatonin and propose the PLC-IP 3 to be operative in malaria parasites. Her lab identified four candidates for GPCRs by bioinformatics at the Plasmodium genome database, among them, PfSR25, which is a sensor for changes in potassium concentrations. The GPCR-like protein activates, leading to Ca 2+ signaling in malarial parasites. By constructing the knock-out of PfSR25, her lab discovered that these modified parasites are less resistant than wild-type parasites to antimalarials suggesting that the GPCR, PfSR25 could be a target for developing new antimalarial therapy.