Coordinating team
Olavo Amaral
Olavo Amaral is a professor in the Instituto de Bioquímica Médica Leopoldo de Meis in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro since 2009. He's a physician and has a PhD in Biochemistry, and he used to research the neurobiology of memory, until he realized that studying science itself to make it more reproducible was more important than anything else he could do in the lab. From then on, he reinvented himself as an activist in the area of reproducibility and open science and became an ambassador for ASAPbio, an organization dedicated to promote transparency and innovation in scientific communication. He also writes fiction, tries his luck at journalism and is currently working on a book about the relationship between science and market in the definition of the frontier between health and disease.
Clarissa Carneiro
Clarissa Carneiro is a PhD student at the Instituto de Bioquímica Médica Leopoldo de Meis in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. After a brief experience in behavioral neuroscience, she chose to dedicate her time to metascience. As of now, her main projects include meta-analysis about aversive memories in rodents and a survey of the quality of preprints in the biomedical sciences. From now on, she joins the team at the Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative in the search for a more trustworthy science.
Kleber Neves
Kleber Neves is a biomedical scientist and has a PhD in Neurosciences, both from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. He has research experience in the areas of brain evolution and cognition, comparative neuroanatomy, complex networks and agent-based modeling. Along his path, he has also ventured in scientific outreach and organization of events, teaching, game development and theater. His aptitude no-budget science and his restlessness regarding the current state of science have driven him to join the Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative.
Bruna Valério
​Bruna Valério is a biomedical scientist with a PhD in Neurosciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She has worked on the neural basis of psychiatric disorders. Specifically, her thesis was about morphological changes related to the etiology of schizophrenia, using animal models, as well as reverse translational work, based on observations made first in human patients. She has worked with magnetic resonance imaging, cellular quantification and molecular techniques, in neuroanatomy and psychiatry. Interested in the complexity of psychiatry and following its uneasy mind, she has joined the Initiative in search of a more reliable science.
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Pedro Tan
Pedro Tan graduated in biomedicine by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. During bachelors, he developed a project in DNA damage signaling during central nervous system development in transgenic mice models. Interested in discussions about reproducibility and systematic problems in biomedical science, he joined the Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative team. He's now at the University of Amsterdam for a Masters Degree.
Ana Paula Wasilewska-Sampaio
Ana Paula Wasilewska-Sampaio is a pharmacist with a PhD in Medical Biochemistry from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. For a long time, she was a researcher in neurobiology, studying memory formation processes, Alzheimer's disease, prion disesases and cancer. After an adventure in the corporate world, she took a sabbatical to care for her two children. As for research reproducibility, sge believes research the research enterprise itself is one of the most important strategies. To help with these and other questions, Ana is now a part of the team at the Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative.
Mariana Abreu
Mariana Abreu is a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro since 2015. She's a veterinarian with a PhD and research on inflammation, pain and hyperalgesia. Specializes also in the science of laboratory animals and is currently the vice-coordinator of the Committee for the Ethical Use of Animals in Research in the university. Her motivation to improve the way animal research is performed and to obtain better results led her to the Initiative.
Nathália Fernandes
​Nathália Fernandes is an undergraduate student in Biotechnology in the Federal University of Amazonas. She is part of both the Synthetic Biology Group and the Molecular Biotechnology Group at the University. The goal of studying the aspects of Brazilian biomedical science that might relate to reproducibility and transparency of the findings is what motivated her to come work with the Initiative.
Ricardo Neto Goulart
Ricardo Netto Goulart is an undergraduate student in Medicine at the Federal University of Pelotas. During high school, he worked with robotics and education, which led to his interest in becoming a scientist. He also works with science popularization and outreach programas at the University and joined the Initiative with the goal of understanding the mechanisms that make research more transparent and efficient.
Jimmy Linhares
Jimmy Linhares is an undergraduate student in Biotechnology at the Federal University of Amazonas and was motivated to join the team by the ideal of making science more transparent, accessible and reproducible.
Funding & Support
Instituto Serrapilheira
Instituto Serrapilheira is a non-profit organization, launched in 2017 with the goal to value and increase the visibility and the impact of science in Brazil. By providing grants, it supports both research projects and science communication and outreach.