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Marcelo Freire is an associate professor in the Genomic Medicine and Infectious Disease Department at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). Prior to joining JCVI, Dr. Freire was an assistant faculty member at The Forsyth Institute and Harvard University (Division of Oral Medicine, Infection and Immunity). Early in his career, he worked on tissue biology of infectious diseases, biofilm-induced bone diseases and antibody engineering. As a dual-scientist and clinician, Dr. Freire’s initial training provided insights in human physiology and unmet clinical needs. As a current president of the Clinical and Translational Science Network (IADR), Dr. Freire is focused on applications of scientific innovations to health care. His research focuses on investigating biological deficiencies in chronic diseases.
Dr. Freire has extensive experience in host response, inflammation biology, transcriptomics and antibody engineering. Inflammation is a fundamental physiological process of normal and pathological conditions. He has led studies that developed novel therapeutics in control of chronic diseases. At JCVI, Dr. Freire is working on investigating links integrating microbiome, metabolism and immune response. In particular his lab is studying mechanisms controlling innate recognition, phagocytosis and activation signals of adaptive immune responses.
Dr. Freire received a DDS from College of Dentistry, Campos, Rio de Janeiro, a PhD in Craniofacial Molecular Biology from University of Southern California, and DMedSc in Oral Medicine and Infectious Diseases from Harvard University.
Research Priorities
Inflammation Biology
- Basic physiology of inflammatory response, with specific interest on neutrophils and granulocytes.
- Chronic inflammation pathology including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and periodontal diseases.
- Activation of Phagocytosis
- G-protein receptors regulation of inflammatory response.
- Resolution of inflammation and tissue response.
- Single cell heterogeneity.
Drug Discovery
- Monoclonal antibody development.
- Genomic and transcriptomic studies of novel biomarkers.
- Engineering of agonist, antagonist and tethering therapeutics to host/microbial antigens.
- Biomaterial and surface modification with biologics.
- Phagocytosis of biomaterials.
Integration of Microbiome-Metabolism-Immune Systems
- Host microbial interactions, including communications inducing metainflammation.
- Evolution of immune sensing and responsiveness.
- Transcriptional response regulation of cell plasticity.
- Dietary perturbation of human/microbial biology.
- Cell fate decisions in heterogeneous micro-environments.
Help Take the Bite Out of Cancer
The goal is to find novel biomarkers to aid in prevention, diagnostics, and therapeutics of OSCC.
Inflammation: Friend or Foe?
JCVI Associate Professor, Marcelo Freire, DDS, PhD, DMSc, continues to lead the field as he investigates the critical role the human microbiome plays in inflammation as the pathway to chronic disease.