Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP), Division of Infectious Diseases, Sâo Paulo, Brazil
Specialization: Infectious diseases, emergent fungal pathogens, antifungal resistance, Surveillance and forecasting

Arnaldo Lopes Colombo received his medical degree from the Federal University of Sâo Paulo (UNIFESP) in 1983, and subsequently continued his residency training (1983-1986) on internal medicine and infectious diseases there. After his residency training and Master’s degree in infectious diseases at UNIFESP (1989), he completed his fellowship training in medical mycology at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, USA. He received his PhD (with focus on antifungal resistance of Candida sp.) at UNIFESP (1992-1994).

He is currently full professor of medicine at UNIFESP (infectology), and head of the Special Laboratory of Mycology. During the last 20 years, Arnaldo Lopes Colombo had the opportunity to coordinate several multicentre surveillance studies to characterize the epidemiology of opportunistic fungal infections in Brazil and Latin America, with focus on candidiasis, trichosporonosis and aspergillosis, accumulating more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and a total of 16,839 citations (H-index of 67). Since 2013, he is a senior consultant at Leading International Fungal Education (LIFE, 2013-present) and the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infection (GAFFI, 2013-present). Since 2016, he is a member of the International Council of the International Immunocompromised Host Society (ICHS). In 2018, he was nominated as a fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM). In addition to his contributions to the training of human resources and knowledge production in the area of medical mycology, he was vice-chancellor of graduate studies and research at UNIFESP (2009-2012).

He worked as a consultant to the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for more than 20 years, having coordinated the professional master's programmes, as assistant coordinator of professional programmes (2013-2017). Since 2018, he has been a member of the Academic Health Coordination of the Sâo Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). He is a reviewer of several national and international journals of relevance in the areas of infectious diseases, applied microbiology and medical mycology. Finally, he has participated in several global programmes of antifungal resistance in partnership with different reference centres, providing major contributions for the understanding of the epidemiology and molecular mechanisms of antifungal resistance in Candida, Trichosporon and Aspergillus spp. He also serves as a consultant on medical mycology for several medical centres in Brazil and other Latin American countries.