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Dr. Lorena Agostini Maia:
Dr. Lorena Agostini Maia:
LatinXinDB Social Media Coordinator
LatinXinDB Social Media Coordinator
Meet Lorena (Lore) our Social Media Coordinator:
"Since I was very young, I have always been fascinated by discovering and understanding how things work. I fell in love with biology, and later with developmental biology, because of the beauty I see in its complexity. Morphology has always fascinated me, and I think that is why I found my scientific identity in embryology and Xenopus."
Meet Xenopus laevis! (A) Adult female African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), the model organism I use in my research. (B) Dorsal view of a stage 48 Xenopus tadpole and its dissected brain, highlighting the fascinating morphology of the developing brain.
Xenopus, love at first sight
I earned my undergraduate degree in Biomedicine from FAMINAS, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. During my undergraduate years, I also discovered another passion: teaching. I volunteered as a monitor in Histology and Cell Biology, and through that experience I realized how much I enjoyed sharing knowledge and helping students understand biological concepts. That enthusiasm for teaching has stayed with me throughout my scientific career.
It may sound cliché to say that I am fascinated by how a single cell becomes a complex embryo, but it is genuinely how I feel. Even today, I can watch a Xenopus embryo developing on a loop, completely absorbed by the remarkable shape changes during gastrulation and neurulation, for example. It never stops being amazing.
After graduating, I continued my academic journey in developmental biology. I completed both my Master's and PhD at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICB), where I worked on axis patterning, drug screening, and Wnt/β-catenin signaling.
A closer look at Xenopus ectodermal cells. Confocal image of the ectoderm of a Xenopus laevis embryo during gastrulation, following injection of GFP-CAAX and membrane-RFP mRNAs at the 16-cell stage, revealing the organization and shapes of embryonic cells.
Neural tube closure in Xenopus laevis. Time-lapse imaging of neural tube closure in a transgenic Xenopus laevisembryo expressing H2B-GFP, acquired using a Leica THUNDER microscope (Hershey). Images were captured every 10 minutes over a period of 4 hours at the Xenopus Couse in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
From Brazil to the world
At the beginning of my PhD, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in the Developmental Biology Course in Quintay, Chile. I believe that everyone who attends leaves profoundly inspired. Beyond the outstanding scientific experience, it introduced me to an amazing community and allowed me to build lasting friendships with developmental biologists from across Latin America.
Toward the end of my PhD, I spent a year as a visiting PhD student at Harvard Medical School in Boston, where I worked on neural induction, again using Xenopus as my model organism. Experiences like international research stays, courses, and conferences are invaluable. They not only broaden our scientific perspectives but also create meaningful connections that transcend political and socioeconomic barriers. Science reminds us that we are all connected.
I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, where I study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neural development in Xenopus laevis, focusing on neural tube formation, brain morphogenesis, and Wnt/PCP signaling. I remain fascinated by how signaling pathways coordinate these complex developmental processes. I truly believe that basic research is the foundation for everything that comes afterward, it is essential.
Above all, I am driven by curiosity, by the joy of sharing knowledge, and by the hope that science can ultimately improve people's lives. Coming from a very small village in Brazil, science became much more than a career, it became a transformative opportunity. It opened doors that once seemed out of reach and allowed me to overcome social and economic barriers while pursuing excellence, and it also gave me the opportunity to contribute to scientific knowledge and discoveries. Whether through research, teaching, or mentoring, I believe that generating and sharing knowledge are equally important parts of being a scientist.
What does LatinX in DevBio means to you?
I believe developmental biology in Latin America has enormous potential, with talented and creative scientists doing excellent research, often despite limited resources and opportunities. For me, initiatives like LatinX in DevBio are important because they help strengthen our community, increase the visibility of Latinx scientists, and create opportunities for collaboration and mutual support. I believe that building these connections can make a real difference, especially for the next generation of researchers.
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