Rafael Trevisan

Background

About Rafael Trevisan

My interest in ecotoxicology and comparative biochemistry and physiology started as an early undergraduate researcher participating in numerous biomonitoring and ecotoxicology fieldwork. This led me to pursue an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) to understand the responses of animals to environmental stressors. This interest was further enriched with research visits to the University of Plymouth (UK) and University College Cork (Ireland). During this phase of my career, I investigated how different organs and the biotransformation and antioxidant systems can coordinate cellular defense mechanisms in bivalves, how these mechanisms can predict organismal health, and I applied such stress responses in field studies to assess overall ecosystem health. After obtaining my Ph.D. I was awarded a competitive Postdoctoral Fellowship to investigate molecular mechanisms associated with urban sewage and pathogen exposure in bivalves at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, an important topic to the aquaculture industry in the largest oyster farming area of Brazil. During the past few years I have been working at Duke University (USA), where I am currently a Research Scientist investigating the metabolic costs of environmental stressors in fish species. My research is motivated by my belief that the overall health of numerous ecosystems is under anthropogenic pressure and that through science we can help to change this scenario. Throughout my scientific career, by combining experiments and fieldworks I have investigated stress responses at the molecular, biochemical, and physiological levels in bivalves and fish. I have identified physiological roles of the antioxidant system and the mercapturic acid pathway in bivalves and how their gills can act as a major metabolic organ; more recently I studied the impacts of nanoplastics on fish early development and multiple generations, in addition to behavior and whole organism and mitochondrial metabolism; and I am also studying the impact of environmental pollutants in the cardiovascular physiology of embryonic and larval fish and have been characterizing the energetic costs of pollutant adaptation in wild fish populations. Besides research, my other passions and career goals are teaching and mentoring. I have pursued these areas by taking part on science education programs with local high school students, teaching Biochemistry and Ecotoxicology to undergraduate and graduate students, and mentoring students on their research projects.