Luis R. Saraiva
Principal Investigator, Sidra Medicine, Qatar
Associate Professor Adjunct, Yale University, USA
Joint Associate Professor, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar

In 2004, Luis concluded his integrated B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Biology at the University of Evora and the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Portugal. He advanced to a Ph.D. in in Genetics at the International Graduate School in Genetics and Functional Genomics of the University of Cologne (Germany), graduating summa cum laude in 2008. Next, his academic journey took him to Harvard Medical School as a visiting scientist, funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds, followed by his first postdoctoral appointment at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (USA). In 2013, he received the EBI–Sanger Postdoctoral (ESPOD) Fellowship, which led him to continue his postdoctoral training at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge (UK), where he also earned a Sanger Early Career Innovation Award.

In 2015, he joined Sidra Medicine (Qatar), where he is currently based, leading the Human Disease Modeling and Therapeutics Laboratory and the Congenital Malformations Clinical Research Program. He served as Adjunct Faculty at the Monell Chemical Senses Center (USA) from 2016-2023, has been a Joint Professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University (Qatar) since 2018, and an Associate Professor Adjunct at Yale University (USA) since 2024. His lab specializes in developing biological assays to explore the molecular bases of rare genetic diseases, aiming to push the boundaries of basic science and turn research into groundbreaking diagnostics and personalized therapies for neurological, kidney, and heart diseases.

In 2020, he received the Silver Medal of Merit from the Mayor of Manteigas, his hometown, for his significant contributions to science education and community engagement.