Rafaela Salgado Fontenele

Postdoctoral Fellow since 2021

Research areas

  • Metagenomics
  • Virology

Education

  • BS: University of Brasilia, Biological Sciences, (2007-2011)
  • MS: University of Brasilia, Molecular Biology, (2012-2014)
  • PhD: Arizona State Univeristy, Microbiology, (2018-2021)
Rafaela Salgado Fontenele

Background

My name is Rafaela Salgado Fontenele and I am a Postdoctoral researcher in the Jiang lab at NIH. My primary interests are in metagenomics and virology. The main goal is to use genomics data to better understand viral dynamics and evolution. In the Jiang lab I develop a project to create a bioinformatic framework for wastewater-based epidemiology on SARS-CoV-2. On my spare time I enjoy cooking, reading novels and spending time with friends and family!

Papers from time in Jiang lab

  1. Fontenele RS, Kraberger S, Hadfield J, Driver EM, Bowes D, Holland LA, Faleye TOC, Adhikari S, Kumar R, Inchausti R, Holmes WK, Deitrick S, Brown P, Duty D, Smith T, Bhatnagar A, Yeager RA 2nd, Holm RH, von Reitzenstein NH, Wheeler E, Dixon K, Constantine T, Wilson MA, Lim ES, Jiang X, Halden RU, Scotch M, Varsani A. 2021. High-Throughput Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater Provides Insights into Circulating Variants. Water Research. 205: 117710. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117710.
  2. Yang Y, Dufault-Thompson K, Fontenele RS, Jiang X. 2022. Putative Host-Derived Insertions in the Genomes of Circulating SARS-CoV-2 Variants. mSystem. DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00179-22.
  3. Fontenele RS, Yang Y, Driver EM, Magge A, Kraberger S, Custer JM, Dufault-Thompson K, Cox E, Newell ME, Varsani A, Halden RU, Scotch M, Jiang X. 2023. Wastewater surveillance uncovers regional diversity and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variants across nine states in the USA. Sci Total Environ.. 877: 162862. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162862.