Luan Aires - M.Sc student, Laboratory Technician

Growing up in a small town in the south of Brazil was a great experience. I always had a close relationship with the nature and animals which amplified more and more my interest in science. I chose to course Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Santa Catarina not only to pursue the dream of making a hobby my wage earner, but also because I knew that in Brazil researches are mainly done at Federal Universities, with a huge gap between these educational institutions and companies. During my bachelor’s degree my interest in the microscopic scale organisms excelled. I started working as a volunteer trainee in a laboratory of gene expression, at the same time in a laboratory of applied immunology. One of my advisors noticed my proactivity and interest in their research and offered me a scientific initiation scholarship, which in Brazil is the first step for undergraduate researchers. From there on I have worked with some viruses (rabies, HIV), monoclonal antibodies, applied microbiology and more recently, during my master course, biology and isolation of microalgae. In this scenery, I feel like my formation as a microbiologist is on its construction, and that the more we discover from this “invisible” organisms the better answers of how to relate with our planet we will have, solving emerging problems as pollution and global warming.