Patricio Rojas Silva

Patricio Rojas Silva holds a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery degree from the Central University of Ecuador, a Master's degree in Microbiology from the University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ, Ecuador), and a Ph.D. in Sciences from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (United States). At USFQ, he serves as the Director of the Master's in Microbiology, a professor in the College of Biological and Environmental Sciences, and a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology. During his Ph.D. at Rutgers University, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Ilya Raskin, where he studied the isolation and identification of natural molecules with leishmanicidal effects and the control of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. His projects are related to the study of the parasite Leishmania, the causative agent of a tropical disease called leishmaniasis, and the search for natural or synthetic molecules that can be used as new drugs to treat this disease. Additionally, he collaborates on the study of emerging and zoonotic pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, avian influenza, Leptospira, and hemoparasites.