title: The dynamics of Brazilian protozoology over the past century.
abstract: Brazilian scientists have been contributing to the protozoology field for more than 100 years with important discoveries of new species such as Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp. In this work, we used a Brazilian thesis database (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) covering the period from 1987-2011 to identify researchers who contributed substantially to protozoology. We selected 248 advisors by filtering to obtain researchers who supervised at least 10 theses. Based on a computational analysis of the thesis databases, we found students who were supervised by these scientists. A computational procedure was developed to determine the advisors' scientific ancestors using the Lattes Platform. These analyses provided a list of 1,997 researchers who were inspected through Lattes CV examination and allowed the identification of the pioneers of Brazilian protozoology. Moreover, we investigated the areas in which researchers who earned PhDs in protozoology are now working. We found that 68.4% of them are still in protozoology, while 16.7% have migrated to other fields. We observed that support for protozoology by national or international agencies is clearly correlated with the increase of scientists in the field. Finally, we described the academic genealogy of Brazilian protozoology by formalising the "forest" of Brazilian scientists involved in the study of protozoa and their vectors over the past century.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório Especial de Ciclo Celular, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: M Carolina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Elias
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Lucile M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Floeter-Winter
authors.affiliation: Centro de Matemática, Computação e Cognição, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Jesus P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mena-Chalco
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000266:history* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001938:Brazil; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D010274:Parasitology / Q000266:history* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000266:history* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
references.citation: An Paul Med Cir. 1946 Apr;51:261
references.pmid: 20991197
references.citation: Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 1963 Nov-Dec;5:289-93
references.pmid: 14116864
references.citation: Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 1964 May-Jun;6:117-8
references.pmid: 14177810
references.citation: J Cell Sci. 1999 Sep;112 ( Pt 17):2799-809
references.pmid: 10444375
references.citation: Hospital (Rio J). 1961 Jun;59:1165-77
references.pmid: 13728601
references.citation: Rev Assoc Med Bras. 1957 Oct;3(3):256-62
references.pmid: 13506129
references.citation: Hospital (Rio J). 1954 Jun;45(6):703-7
references.pmid: 13191740
references.citation: Int J Dermatol. 1971 Jul-Sep;10(3):179-81
references.pmid: 5116171
references.citation: Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 1988 Mar-Apr;30(2):109-17
references.pmid: 3201060
references.citation: Science. 1911 Aug 4;34(866):129-38
references.pmid: 17741330
references.citation: J Exp Med. 1989 Jan 1;169(1):59-72
references.pmid: 2521244
references.citation: Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 1962 Mar-Apr;4:105-11
references.pmid: 13873178
references.citation: J Protozool. 1974 Oct;21(4):575-8
references.pmid: 4214499
references.citation: EMBO J. 2002 Apr 15;21(8):1881-8
references.pmid: 11953307
references.citation: Med Cir Farm. 1957 Jun;19(254):211-5
references.pmid: 13464323
references.citation: Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1963 Jul;57:266-8
references.pmid: 14047022
references.citation: Rev Bras Gastroenterol. 1957 Sep-Oct;9(5):215-34
references.pmid: 13518695
references.citation: Parasit Vectors. 2015 Aug 08;8:413
references.pmid: 26249205
references.citation: Hospital (Rio J). 1952 Feb;41(2):269-75
references.pmid: 13068948
references.citation: Rev Paul Med. 1945 Jun;26:355-7
references.pmid: 21012132
references.citation: Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1968;62(3):385-95
references.pmid: 5659232
references.citation: ACS Cent Sci. 2015 Mar 25;1(1):18-23
references.pmid: 27162942
references.citation: Rev Bras Malariol Doencas Trop. 1956 Oct;8(4):555-63
references.pmid: 13494875
references.citation: Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2012 Dec;107(8):1070-2
references.pmid: 23295762
references.citation: Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 1952 Mar;50:211-28
references.pmid: 13012838
references.citation: J Biol Chem. 1985 Apr 25;260(8):4963-8
references.pmid: 3988741
references.citation: Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 1964 May-Jun;6:93-100
references.pmid: 14177814
references.citation: J Mol Biol. 1978 Mar 25;120(1):33-53
references.pmid: 642006
references.citation: Parasitology. 1948 Jul;39(1-2):91-4
references.pmid: 18876881
references.citation: Trends Parasitol. 2006 Apr;22(4):168-74
references.pmid: 16504583