Affiliation: Rutgers University

Dr. Velloso is a research associate under the supervision of Dr. Steven Levison, investigating the effects of IL-6 on the proliferation and the neurogenic/gliogenic potential of the sphere-derived neural progenitors using SVZ-derived neurospheres. Furthermore, he has studied the impact of systemic IL-6 elevation on the behavioral outcomes of neonatal mice and the underlying changes in the production of neurons and glial cells in late developing brain structures.

In his previous postdoc with Dr. Mari Sogayar, he characterized the transcriptome of mouse embryonic stem cells at different stages of differentiation into insulin-producing beta-like cells to identify targets to improve the efficiency of cell therapy strategies for type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. In a second study, under the supervision of Dr. Ricardo Correa, he investigated the molecular and cellular outcomes of activating NOD1 and NOD2 immune receptors in breast cancer cell lines, unveiling signaling pathways linking driving tumorigenicity of a triple negative breast cancer cell line.

During his PhD research, he generated embryonic mouse neurospheres to characterize the expression and distribution of Fmr1 alternative splicing isoforms during murine CNS development.