Affiliation: Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Veterinária, Departamento de Parasitologia Animal

Since 2015, Patrici has been a faculty member (professor) at the Department of Animal Parasitology, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Brazil. She obtained her PhD degree from the same University in 2014. Her Ph.D. focused on the biological control of cattle ticks using entomopathogenic fungi under the supervision of Dr. Vânia Bittencourt and Dr. Everton Fernandes. During her Ph.D. (2012-2013), Patricia was also a visiting scholar at Utah State University, USA, under the supervision of Dr. Donald Roberts, where she deepened her knowledge of entomopathogenic fungal toxins and detected for the first time the presence of these toxins in entomopathogenic fungus-endophytically colonized plants. In 2021 Patricia received the Early Career Award from the Society of Invertebrate Pathology. Her research interests focus mainly on the immune response of ticks challenged with entomopathogenic fungi and the endophytic role of these fungi.