Tulio de Oliveira
Born
Brazil
Education
AwardsBatho Pele Award (2022)
Scientific career
Institutions
Doctoral studentsSikhulile Moyo

Tulio de Oliveira is a Brazilian, Portuguese, and South African permanent resident professor of bioinformatics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and associate professor of global health at the University of Washington. He has studied outbreaks of chikungunya, dengue, hepatitis B and C, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, yellow fever and Zika. During the COVID-19 pandemic he led the team that confirmed the discovery of the Beta variant of the COVID-19 virus in 2020 and the Omicron variant in 2021.

He gained fellowships to the University of Oxford, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and the University of Edinburgh and in 2015 was appointed professor. In 2017, he founded the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) and in 2021 he founded the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), to sequence and trace epidemics.

Early life

De Oliveira was born in Brazil.[1] He earned a bachelor of science degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.[2] He completed his MSc and PhD at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal.[2]

Career

During his career he has studied outbreaks of chikungunya, dengue, hepatitis B and C, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, yellow fever and Zika.[2]

From 2004 to 2006 he was a Marie Curie research fellow at the University of Oxford.[2] In 2015 he was a Newton advanced fellow at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute at the University of Edinburgh and in the same year was appointed professor of bioinformatics at University of KwaZulu-Natal.[1][2] There, in 2017, he founded KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), which has sequenced and traced dengue, Zika, HIV and tuberculosis, in addition to SARS-CoV-2.[1][3] In 2018, the year prior to completing his fellowship at Edinburgh, he was appointed as an associate professor of Global Health at the University of Washington.[2] In July 2021, he became a professor of bioinformatics at Stellenbosch University's School for Data Science and Computational Thinking.[2]

During the COVID-19 pandemic he led the team that confirmed the discovery of the Beta variant of the COVID-19 virus in late 2020.[1][4] He has hypothesised that large groups of previously-infected people with declining immunity directly drive the emergence of variants of concern.[5] If simultaneously there is a high level of transmission, then declining individual immunity may fail to prevent re-infection and if the virus is not cleared in enough people, new dangerous mutations may become more likely, as the virus survives and goes on to infect more people.[5] Subsequently, as principal investigator and leader of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, he led the team that confirmed and alerted authorities of the Omicron variant, first sequenced in Johannesburg's Lancet Laboratory, as a new variant in 2021.[4][6][7] After first alerting authorities to the Omicron variant in South Africa, de Oliveira contended that the origin is unknown; he has "insisted that just because it was first detected in South Africa doesn't mean that's where it originated".[8] He reported that it was possible that Omicron came from elsewhere as O. R. Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, was the largest in Africa.[9]

Recognition and awards

De Oliveira was included in a list of ten scientists with important roles in scientific developments in 2021 compiled by the scientific journal Nature.[1] De Oliveira was included in a list of the leader of genomics surveillance as one of the ten breakthrough technologies in 2022 compiled by the scientific journal MIT_Technology_Review.[10] He received the Gold Medal Award from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) in 2022.[11] In the same year, for his contributions to society, he received the Batho Pele Award from the Government of South Africa.[12]

Further reading

  • "Why genomic sequencing is crucial in COVID-19 response". Regional Office for Africa. WHO. 4 October 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Nordling, Linda (2021). "Nature's 10 Ten people who helped shape science in 2021: A bioinformatician in South Africa helped to identify troubling variants of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2". Nature. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "News - Renowned bioinformatician joins forces with..." www.sun.ac.za. 20 July 2021. Archived from the original on 25 December 2021. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  3. ↑ "Tulio de Oliveira | University of Washington - Department of Global Health". globalhealth.washington.edu. University of Washington. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  4. 1 2 "How South African Researchers Identified the Omicron Variant of COVID". The New Yorker. 30 November 2021. Archived from the original on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Part II.A. Deploying the COVID-19 Vaccine in EAP". World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, Spring 2021: Uneven Recovery. Washington: World Bank Publications. 2021. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-4648-1702-1.
  6. ↑ Dyer, Owen (3 December 2021). "Covid-19: South Africa's surge in cases deepens alarm over omicron variant". BMJ. 375: n3013. doi:10.1136/bmj.n3013. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 34862184. S2CID 244842008. Archived from the original on 30 December 2021.
  7. ↑ "How South African scientists discovered Omicron and set off a global chain reaction". ABC17NEWS. C. N. N. 2 December 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  8. ↑ Hurst, Luke (29 November 2021). "Omicron variant poses 'very high' global risk, WHO says". euronews. Archived from the original on 25 December 2021. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
  9. ↑ Zubașcu, Florin (2 December 2021). "'Do not blame South Africa' for the Omicron variant". Science|Business. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  10. ↑ Nordling, Linda (2022). "How tracking coronavirus variants will prepare us for the next global public health threat". MIT. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  11. ↑ "SAMRC rolls out the red carpet for leading medical scientists and researchers". www.samrc.ac.za. Archived from the original on 3 April 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  12. ↑ Gumede, Compiled by Nosipho (28 March 2022). "UKZN researchers scoop the 2022 National Batho Pele Excellence Awards". Witness. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
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