Sérgio A. Lira, is a Brazilian-born American immunologist who pioneered the use of genetic approaches to study the function of chemokines.
[1] His early studies were the first to show that chemokines played a major role on leukocyte trafficking to the brain, the lung and the thymus.
from Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, in Recife, Brazil, in 1982 and a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology from the University of California, San Diego, in 1988.
[1] Other contributions include studies on the mechanisms of lymphoid neogenesis and on the biological function of molecules encoded by viruses that mimic chemokines, including the discovery that the chemokine receptor encoded by herpesvirus 8 is an oncogene, a discovery that led to important insights into the mechanisms leading to the development of Kaposi’s sarcoma.
[6] Lira’s lab has also made important contributions to the study of IL-23, a cytokine that affects development of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.