Researcher

Rodrigo Villares Portugal

Rodrigo Portugal has a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Computational Physics and a Doctorate in Biomolecular Physics from the São Carlos Institute of Physics of the University of São Paulo. Post-doctoral degree in cryomicroscopy of isolated particles (Single-Particle Cryo-EM) at Imperial College London (2006-2008). In 2010, he joined the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS/CNPEM), setting the electronic cryomicroscopy research unit, a pioneer in Brazil.
Rodrigo coordinated the implementation of the open facility of electronic cryomicroscopy of the Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano/CNPEM), where he has been working since 2011. Vice-President for Biological Sciences of the Brazilian Society of Microscopy and Microanalysis (2019-2021 and 2021-2023) and Permanent Professor of the Post-Graduate Program in Biotechnoscience at UFABC.
Portugal currently works in cryomicroscopy projects applied to structural biology. He also develops research in methodologies for electron cryomicroscopy.

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Recent publication highlights

  • An atomic model for the human septin hexamer by cryo-EM, D. C. Mendonça, S. L. Guimarães, H. D. M. Pereira, A. A. Pinto, M. A. de Farias, A. S. Godoy, A. P. U. Araujo, M. van Heel, R. V. Portugal, R. C. Garratt, J. Mol. Biol. 433(15), 167096 (2021).
  • Cryo-EM structure of the mature and infective Mayaro virus at 4.4 Å resolution reveals features of arthritogenic alphaviruses, H. V. Ribeiro-Filho, L. D. Coimbra, A. Cassago, R. Rocha, J. V. S. Guerra, R. Felicio, C. M. Carnieli, L. Leme, A. C. Padilha, A. F. P. Leme, D. B. B. Trivella, R. V. Portugal, P. S. Lopes-de-Oliveira, R. E. Marques, Nat. Commun. 12, 3038 (2021).
  • Pair Distribution Function from Electron Diffraction in Cryogenic Electron Microscopy: Revealing Glassy Water Structure, J. B. Souza, G. R. Schleder, F. M. Colombari, M. A. de Farias, J. Bettini, M. van Heel, R. V. Portugal, A. Fazzio, E. R. Leite, J. of Phys. Chem. Letters, 11(4), 1564 (2020).
  • Specimen preparation optimization for size and morphology characterization of nanocellulose by TEM, L. C. E. da Silva, A. Cassago, L. C. Battirola, M. C. Gonçalves, R. V. Portugal, Cellulose 27(9), 5435–5444 (2020).