Ernesto T Marques

MD, PhD
  • Associate Professor, Public Health Researcher, FIOCRUZ
  • Faculty in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology

Dr. Marques is a researcher in the virology department at Fiocruz and has applied his career to vaccines, pre-clinical and clinical immunology, studying the immune responses to infections and/or vaccines in animal models, ex-vivo models and in clinical samples. In these studies, Dr. Marques has identified immune mechanisms associated with immunity and disease pathogenesis and this knowledge has been applied to the development of successful diagnostic tools that have been used in vaccinology and epidemiological surveys and vaccines that are being developed by the pharmaceutical industry. His main contributions are the development of molecular adjuvants for mRNA/DNA and vectored vaccines that enhances antigen presentation to CD4+ T-cells, the identification of the Zika outbreak in Recife, Brazil and the association of Zika infection with the microcephaly outbreak. Currently, he is working on Zika, Dengue, HIV and COVID-19 immune responses and vaccines. 

Education

1993 | Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil | Medical Doctor - MD
1999 | The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

Teaching

IDM - 2003 - Host Response to Microbial Infection - Course Coordinator

IDM - 2035 - Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases: Research and Practice - Course Coordinator

Lecturer in the courses IDM2002, IDM2014; IDM3440; IDM2004; IDM 2038; IDM2010;
Selected Publications

Priscila M. S. Castanha, Dylan J. Tuttle Georgios D. Kitsios, Jana L. Jacobs, Ulisses Braga-Neto, Matthew Duespohl, Sanjay Rathod, Michelle M. Marti, Sarah Wheeler,8, Asma Naqvi, Brittany Staines, John Mellors, Alison Morris, Bryan J. McVerry, Faraaz Shah, Caitlin Schaefer, Bernard J. C. Macatangay, Barbara Methe, Christian A. Fernandez, Simon M. Barratt-Boyes, Donald Burke,Ernesto T. A. Marques Contribution of Coronavirus-Specific Immunoglobulin G Responses to Complement Overactivation in Patients with Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 The Journal of Infectious Diseases&reg 2022;XX:1–12 doi/10.1093/infdis/jiac091/6546404

Castanha PMS, Marques ETA. A Glimmer of Hope: Recent Updates and Future Challenges in Zika Vaccine Development. Viruses. 2020 Nov 30;12(12):1371. doi: 10.3390/v12121371.PMID: 33266129 

Castanha PMS and Ernesto T A Marques. Zika vaccines: can we solve one problem without creating another one?  Lancet Infect Dis; May 18, 2021 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30768-4

PMS Castanha, ETA Marques Vaccine development during global epidemics: the Zika experience. The Lancet. Infectious Diseases (2020) 

Isabel Rodriguez-Barraquer, Federico Costa, Eduardo JM Nascimento, Nivison Nery, Priscila MS Castanha, Gielson Almeida Sacramento, Jaqueline Cruz, Mayara Carvalho, Daiana De Olivera, José E Hagan, Haritha Adhikarla, Elsio A Wunder, Danilo F Coêlho, Sasha R Azar, Shannan L Rossi, Nikos Vasilakis, Scott C Weaver, Guilherme S Ribeiro, Angel Balmaseda, Eva Harris, Maurício L Nogueira, Mitermayer G Reis, Ernesto TA Marques, Derek AT Cummings, Albert I Ko; Impact of preexisting dengue immunity on Zika virus emergence in a dengue endemic region, Science 363 (6427), 607-610 (2019)

Marques ETA, Burke DS. Tradition and innovation in development of a Zika vaccine. Lancet.  (2018)

Nascimento, Eduardo J.M. ; Huleatt, James W. ; Cordeiro, Marli T. ; Castanha, Priscila M.S. ; George, James K. ; Grebe, Eduard ; Welte, Alex ; Brown, Monique ; Burke, Donald S. ; Marques, Ernesto T.A. . Development Of Antibody Biomarkers Of Long Term And Recent Dengue Virus Infections. Journal Of Virological Methods, v. 257, p. 62-68, (2018).

Magalhaes T, Braga C, Cordeiro MT, Oliveira ALS, Castanha PMS, Maciel APR, Amancio NML, Gouveia PN, Peixoto-da-Silva VJ Jr, Peixoto TFL, Britto H, Lima PV, Lima ARS, Rosenberger KD, Jaenisch T, Marques ETA. Zika virus displacement by a chikungunya outbreak in Recife, Brazil.  PLoS Negl Trop Dis 11(11):e0006055.  (2017)

Castanha PMS, Nascimento EJM, Braga C, Cordeiro MT, de Carvalho OV, de Mendonça LR, Azevedo EAN, França RFO, Dhalia R, Marques ETA. Dengue Virus-Specific Antibodies Enhance Brazilian Zika Virus Infection. J Infect Dis  215:781-785. (2017)

Palma ML, Duangkhae P, Douradinha B, Viana IFT, Rigato PO, Dhalia R, Mailliard RB, Barratt-Boyes SM, Nascimento EJM, Oshiro TM, da Silva Duarte AJ, Marques ETA. Development of potent class II transactivator gene delivery systems capable of inducing de novo MHC II expression in human cells, in vitro and ex vivo. Gene Ther  24:342-352. (2017)

Jaenisch T, Rosenberger KD, Brito C, Brady O, Brasil P, Marques ET.  (2017).  Risk of microcephaly after Zika virus infection in Brazil, 2015 to 2016. Bull World Health Organ 95:191-198.

Castanha PM, Braga C, Cordeiro MT, Souza AI, Silva CD, Martelli CT, van Panhuis WG, Nascimento EJ, Marques ET.   (2016). Placental transfer of dengue-specific antibodies and kinetics of dengue infection enhancing-activity in Brazilian infants. J Infect Dis   doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiw143.

Cordeiro MT, Pena LJ, Brito CA, Gil LH, Marques ET. (2016). Positive IgM for Zika virus in the cerebrospinal fluid of 30 neonates with microcephaly in Brazil.  Lancet  doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30253-7. 

Cordeiro MT, Brito CA, Pena LJ, Castanha PM, Gil LH, Lopes KG, Dhalia R, Meneses JA, Ishigami AC, Mello LM, Alencar LX, Guarines KM, Rodrigues LC, Marques ET.  (2016). Results of a Zika Virus (ZIKV) Immunoglobulin M-Specific Diagnostic Assay Are Highly Correlated With Detection of Neutralizing Anti-ZIKV Antibodies in Neonates With Congenital Disease. J Infect Dis 214:1897-1904.

Araujo TVB, Rodrigues LC, Ximenes RA, Miranda-Filho DB, Montarroyos UR, Melo APL, Valongueiro S, Militao de Albuquerque, MDP, Souza WV, Braga C, Filho SPB, Vazquez E, Cruz DC, Bezerra LA, Henriques CMP, Castanha PM, Cordeiro MT, Dhalia R, Marques-Junior ET, Martelli CMT.   (2016). Microcephaly and Zika infection: Preliminary Report of a Case- Control Study. Lancet Infect Dis 16:1356-1363.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/ernesto.marques.1/bibliography/public/