Educational Background:

  • BS Biology (Licentiate’s degree before EU’s Bologna reforms), Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Portugal, 2002
  • EU Socrates Erasmus Programme Fellow, Center for Marine Biotechnology, Applied Algology group, University of Las Palmas (ULPGC), Canary Islands, Spain, 2002.
  • PhD. Biology (Microbial Ecology), University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, 2009
  • Postdoctoral Fellow in Metagenomics, National Science Foundation. US DOE – Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California, 2009-2012

Academic Position: Associate Professor

Academic Address, Telephone & E-Mail:

Microbial Ecology and Genomics Lab (MEGL)
Department of Microbiology & Medical Zoology
University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine
Medical Sciences Campus

Tel 787-758-2525 extS. 2096 (Office) 7029 / 1361 (Labs)

E-mail: filipa.godoy@upr.edu

 

Field of Interest: Microbiome, Microbial Community Ecology, Metagenomics, Host-Microbe interactions, NGS, Bioinformatics

Research in the lab has been focused on microbial community structure and function in vertebrate animals, humans and other ecosystems. We integrate DNA sequence data with microbiology, ecology, physiology, metagenomics and bioinformatics to address broad questions on host-microbe interactions.

Besides performing comparative microbial surveys (amplicon sequencing of bacteria and fungi), we also perform shotgun metagenomics, comparative genomics and single cell genomics.

Our lab has made significant contributions to the field of animal microbiomes, studying the hoatzin – a South American folivorous bird – as well as other animals.

Currently we characterize microbiomes to understand the evolution, transmission and functions of host-microbe symbiosis and to dissect dysbiotic phenotypes.

Current areas of research include: 1) understanding the correlation between HPV and the cervicovaginal and oral microbiomes in Puerto Ricans; 2) relating gut microbiome with sleep patterns; 3) exploring the role of the microbiome on the onset of T1D in children. Other ongoing projects include the characterization of the rhizosphere of Tabebuia heterophylla, a tree native to the West Indies; Mining for lignocellulose carbohydrate-active enzymes in fermentative ecosystems and characterizing the microbiomes of Puerto Rican Mangroves. Collaborative studies include the microbiome of Cetaceans, Phylogenetically distant algae, and the role of the built environment in microbial transmission to humans.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications 2018

  1. Godoy-Vitorino, F., Romaguera, J.E., Zhao, C., Vargas-Robles, D., Ortiz-Morales, G., Vázquez-Sánchez, F., Sanchez-Vázquez M, de la Garza-Casillas M, Martinez-Ferrer M, White JR, Bittinger K, Dominguez-Bello MG and Blaser MJ (2018). Cervicovaginal fungi and bacteria associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and high-risk Human Papillomavirus infections in a Hispanic population. Front Microbiol. 2018 Oct 23;9:2533. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02533. eCollection 2018. PubMed PMID: 30405584; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6208322.
  2. Godoy-Vitorino, F. and Toledo-Hernandez, C. (2018) Reef building corals as a tool for climate change research in the genomics era. In M. Kloc, J. Z. Kubiak (eds.), Marine Organisms as Model Systems in Biology and Medicine, Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation 65,Chapter 23 , ISBIN 978-3-319-92485-4, https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319- 92486-1_23, PMID:30083934
  3. van Schooten, B., Godoy-Vitorino, F., McMillan, W. O. and Papa, R. (2018), Conserved microbiota among young Heliconius butterfly species, Oct 2;6:e5502. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5502. eCollection 2018. PMID:30310733Abarca JG, Zuniga I, Ortiz-Morales G, Lugo A, Viquez-Cervilla M, Rodriguez-Hernandez N, Vázquez-Sánchez F, Murillo-Cruz C, Torres-Rivera EA, Pinto-Tomás AA and Godoy-Vitorino F (2018) Characterization of the Skin Microbiota of the Cane Toad Rhinella cf. marina in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. Front. Microbiol. 8:2624. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02624 PMID: 29354109 PMCID: PMC5760547
  4. Vargas-Robles, D., Magris, M., Morales, N., de Koning, M.N., Rodriguez, I., Nieves, T., Godoy-Vitorino,F., Sanchez, G., Alcaraz, L.D., Forney, L., Pérez,M.E., García-Briceño, L., van Doorn,L.J., Dominguez-Bello,M.G., High infection by only oncogenic Human Papillomavirus in Amerindians, mSphere,3:e00176- 18. https://doi.org/10.1128/ mSphere.00176-18. PMID: 29720524, PMCID:PMC5932372
  5. Ortiz,G., Chorna,N., Romaguera ,J.,Martinez-Ferrer,M., Sanchez,M.,Ortiz,A.P., White,J.R., Guerrero-Preston,R. and Godoy-Vitorino, F., Cervical microbiota and the urinary metabolome in patients with high-risk and low-risk HPV infections, Cancer Research 78 (13 Supplement), 3267-3267 ([abstract]. In: of the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, Illinois. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; 2018.Abstract nr 3267)
  6. Guerrero-Preston,R., Navarro,K., Godoy-Vitorino,F,  White, J., Jedlicka,A., Rivera-Alvarez,G.,Mora-Lagos, B., Timp, W., Westra, W., Koch, W.,Marchionni, L., Kim, Y.,Sidransky, D., High-resolution microbiome profiling of 16SrRNA sequencing data, Microbiome Arrays and Expression Arrays identify differential bacterial communities in head and neck cancer patients treated with surgery, chemo-radiation and PD-1 checkpoint blockade therapy, Biomarkers predictive of therapeutic benefit , Cancer Research 78 (13 Supplement), 570-570 (In: of the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, Illinois. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; 2018.Abstract nr 570)
  7. Ortiz-Maldonado, Y., Godoy-Vitorino, F. and Restrepo,C., Landsliding and rhizobiota link the short- and long-term carbon cycles,  Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 20, EGU2018-17124, 2018 EGU General Assembly 2018

 

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications (from > 20): 2017-mid 2018

  1. Bondoso, J., Godoy-Vitorino, F., Balagué, V., Gasol, J.,Harder, J. Lage, O.M. (2017) Epiphytic Planctomycetes communities associated with three main groups of macroalgae, FEMS Microbiol Ecol (2017)  Jan 12. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28087803; doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiw255
  2. Godoy-Vitorino, F., Ruiz-Díaz, C., Rivera-Seda, A., Ramirez-Lugo, and Toledo-Hernandez, C. (2017), The microbial biosphere of the coral Acropora cervicornis in Northeastern Puerto Rico, PeerJ. 2017 Aug 29;5:e3717. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3717. eCollection 2017 PMID: 28875073 PMCID: PMC5580386
  3. Guerrero-Preston,R.,Robert White,J., Godoy-Vitorino,F. González,H., Rodríguez-Hilario,A., Navarro,K., Miranda-Carboni,G. Michailidi,C., Jedlicka,A., Hao,A., Canapp,S., Bondy,J., Dziedzic,A. Mora Lagos,B., Rivera-Alvarez,G., Timp,W., Westra,W., Koch,W. Kang,H., Marchionni,L., KiM.Y., Sidransky,D., (2017) High-resolution microbiome profiling uncovers Fusobacterium nucleatum, Lactobacillus gasseri/johnsonii, and Lactobacillus vaginalis in HPV positive and HPV negative saliva from oral and oropharyngeal cancer patients treated with surgery and chemo-radiation, Oncotarget, 8:67, 110931-110948, https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.20677 eCollection 2017 Dec 19 PMID: 29340028 PMCID: PMC5762296
  4. Becraft,E., Woyke, T., Jarett,J., Ivanova, N., Godoy-Vitorino,F. Poulton,N., Brown,J., Lau, M., Onstott,T., Eisen,J. and Moser, D., Stepanauskas, R., Solagigasbacteria: Lone genomic giants among the uncultured bacterial phyla, bioRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 8/15/2017  doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/176263
  5. Arun A, Rosario LE, Negron JB, and Godoy-Vitorino F. 2017. Unraveling the core and variable bacterial communities of evolutionarily distant marine macroalgae. Phycologia 56(4):7, pp 1-226, ISSN 0031-8884, https://doi.org/10.2216/0031-8884-56.sp4.1
  6. Becraft,E., Woyke, T., Jarett,J., Ivanova, N., Godoy-Vitorino,F. Poulton,N., Brown,J., Lau, M., Onstott,T., Eisen,J. and Moser, D., Stepanauskas, R., Rokubacteria: Genomic Giants among the Uncultured Bacterial Phyla, Frontiers in Microbiology,8:2264, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02264, nov 28 2017 PMID: 29234309, PMCID: PMC5712423
  7. Abarca JG, Zuniga I, Ortiz-Morales G, Lugo A, Viquez-Cervilla M, Rodriguez-Hernandez N, Vázquez-Sánchez F, Murillo-Cruz C, Torres-Rivera EA, Pinto-Tomás AA and Godoy-Vitorino F (2018) Characterization of the Skin Microbiota of the Cane Toad Rhinella cf. marina in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. Front. Microbiol. 8:2624. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02624 PMID: 29354109 PMCID: PMC5760547
  8. Vargas-Robles, D., Magris, M., Morales, N., de Koning, M.N., Rodriguez, I., Nieves, T., Godoy-Vitorino,F., Sanchez, G., Alcaraz, L.D., Forney, L., Pérez,M.E., García-Briceño, L., van Doorn,L.J., Dominguez-Bello,M.G., High infection by only oncogenic Human Papillomavirus in Amerindians, mSphere,3:e00176-18. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00176-18.

See more here:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Filipa_Godoy-Vitorino2

https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipa-godoy-vitorino-60016615/

 

BOOK CHAPTERS / TECHNICAL REPORTS 

  • Godoy-Vitorino, F. and Toledo-Hernandez, C. (2018) Reef building corals as a tool for climate change research in the genomics era. In M. Kloc, J. Z. Kubiak (eds.), Marine Organisms as Model Systems in Biology and Medicine, Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation 65,Chapter 23 , ISBIN 978-3-319-92485-4, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92486-1_23
  • National Library of Medicine (U.S.). Board of Regents, A platform for biomedical discovery and data-powered health : National Library of Medicine strategic plan 2017-2027 [Bethesda, Md.] : U.S. Dept.of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, (2018) pp39, NLM ID: 101721534 [Book] Co-Author. My working group aimed to build a report (10-year plan) with recommended strategies for NLM to facilitate and accelerate discovery inbiomedical discovery and translational science.
  • Dominguez-Bello M., Godoy-Vitorino F. (2013) Infant Microbiome. In: Nelson K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, New York, NY Chapter: 304271, pp.280- 285, DOI: 1007/978-1-4899-7475-4_405

SELECTED HONORS/AWARDS

  • ISME – International Board of Embassadors– International Society for Microbial Ecology (2018- present)
  • Member of NIH’s National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Literature Selection Technical Review Committeefor selection of journals for PubMed indexation (2015-2019)
  • 2018 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Minority Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research Award (AACR-MICR Faculty Scholar Award)
  • Visiting Faculty Award, IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (PRINBRE), 02/2018 Proj title: Microbial Pathway Reconstructions in cervical samples associated to HPV
    Host: Dr. Rob Knight’s Dept. Pediatrics Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA
  • ASM/NSF LINK-UFRI Award Undergraduate Faculty Research Initiative (UFRI) Fellowship – supported by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Leaders Inspiring Networks and Knowledge (LINK) program. Recognition at the National level, as a model of excellence in STEM research and for commitment to student learning.
  • American Society for Microbiology Minority Awardto Filipa Godoy-Vitorino, June 2015, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Carl Storm Fellowship– Invited Speaker at the Gordon Research Conference in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Mount Holyoke, MA – Summer 2013
  • Millis-Colwell Exchange Program Award for Early Career Scientists, American Society for Microbiology. This Award is given to only 1 US researcher each year. Award to participate in the Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting and visit the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at the University of Queensland.
  • American Society for Microbiology –Young Investigator Oral Presentation, Session on Ecology and Evolution of Unicellular Eukaryotes, San Francisco, CA – may 2012
  • NSF National Science Foundation/DBI- Postdoctoral Research Fellowship – 2009-2012
  • NSF National Science Foundation/DEB – Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant – 2007-2009

Media

Dra Godoy

Descifran bacterias que originan un cáncer en la mujer puertorriqueña

La extensa investigación sobre las comunidades bacterianas, presentes en el área cervicovaginal y el Virus del Papiloma Humano (VPH) en mujeres puertorriqueñas, ya rindió sus primeros frutos. Recientemente, se confirmó el hallazgo de un considerable número de bacterias y hongos no descritos con anterioridad. Así lo adelantó a la Revista de Medicina y Salud Pública (MSP), la doctora e investigadora Filipa Godoy-Vitorino.

En el cuerpo humano existen numerosos microbiomas bacterianos. La cantidad de bacterias y su proliferación en determinadas áreas depende de cada individuo. Sin embargo, en términos generales, se reconoce al intestino como el órgano más biodiverso y al tracto genital femenino como la zona con menos comunidades bacterianas.

Por Jean Mitchelle Vélez
Agencia Latina de Noticias de Medicina y Salud Pública

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