Eduardo Vieira de Souza is a NOMIS–Salk Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, US, where he is conducting his research under the mentorship of Alan Saghatelian in the Peptide Biology Laboratory.

Vieira de Souza is a computational biologist from Brazil. He received his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brazil, and completed his PhD in cellular and molecular biology there in 2023. His research focused on developing bioinformatics tools integrating RNA and protein sequencing techniques, as well as machine learning approaches to study a class of short proteins in bacteria, collectively referred to as microproteins. He applied his tools on the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiological agent of tuberculosis, and discovered hundreds of microproteins that had been overlooked for years but play important biological roles, particularly in antibiotic and stress responses.

Research Focus

Vieira de Souza started his postdoctoral studies at the Salk Institute in the Saghatelian lab in 2023 and continued developing tools to study microproteins in humans and mice. At Salk, he established an approach to identify pseudogenes and microproteins encoded by complex regions of the human and mouse genomes. Now, as a NOMIS–Salk Fellow, he is shifting his focus to study a specific class of small proteins and peptides that participate in quorum sensing, a widespread form of bacterial communication. By integrating novel artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches, he is identifying hundreds of peptides used by bacteria to communicate with each other and orchestrate different stages of infection, population growth and many other important biological processes.

Bridging his bioinformatics expertise with rigorous laboratory experiments, Vieira de Souza aims to uncover new insights into these small proteins and peptides involved in bacterial communication. This will enable the development of approaches to modulate the microbiota and control infections without directly killing bacteria, helping to combat antibiotic resistance.

Map of the mouse genome showing the regions that code for new microproteins (Salk Institute). Feature image: Eduardo Vieira de Souza portrait (Salk Institute)