Featured Researcher:

Patricia Abrão Possik, PhD

Field: Cancer Research
Institution: A.C.Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, Brazil

About Her Research:

    Dr. Possik studies acral melanoma, a rare and aggressive skin cancer that disproportionately affects Latin American and Asian populations. While acral melanoma accounts for less than 3% of melanoma cases in European-descended populations, it represents up to half of all melanoma cases in Latin America. Her lab develops experimental models and generates genomic data to foster global research on this understudied disease, sharing models and contributing to diverse genomic databases. She is also part of the LatinCells Project, a collaborative network across six Latin American countries creating the first comprehensive map of immune cell diversity across Latin American populations using single-cell RNA sequencing.

Training & Return Journey:

Patricia completed her PhD at the Antônio Prudente Foundation and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in São Paulo in 2008, including a two-year fellowship at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. She then pursued a six-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. She returned to Brazil in 2015 as a Young Talent Fellow under Science Without Borders, motivated by both personal reasons—wanting to be closer to family and familiar culture—and professional opportunities to conduct translational cancer research at a leading cancer institute with access to patient samples and clinical data.

Navigating Challenges: 

    Limited local funding and competitive grant opportunities have been significant challenges. Patricia has maintained active international collaborations from her training years, allowing her to access external funding and remain engaged in global research. Adapting to the local research ecosystem required patience and strategic thinking—scientific questions must be carefully formulated because experiments are costly with less room for trial and error. Rebuilding her professional network and gaining recognition within the Brazilian research community took time and focused effort on developing well-founded, long-term research questions.

Featured Researcher:

Funding & Support:

Training abroad: CAPES-PDEE Fellowship (PhD sandwich program). Return and lab establishment: Young Talent Fellowship (Science Without Borders-CNPq), ICGEB Early Return Grant, Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship with Wellcome Sanger Institute, MRC Seed/Team Award for low- and middle-income countries, and Melanoma Research Alliance Pilot Grant.

Advice to Young Scientists:

"Seek out mentors and build networks early on. Don't hesitate to reach out to researchers abroad—most are open to collaboration. A good mentor values you as a researcher and sees your potential beyond the resources you have. We receive excellent training in Latin America. We are flexible, adaptable, resourceful, and creative. We know how to ask the right questions to minimize costs and errors. We are valuable scientists, and it's important to always remember that. Always consider how your work can impact your local community—the questions we can address here are unique and globally relevant. Our perspective as Latin American scientists is not a limitation, it's a strength. Be open to collaborations where you are an active and equal contributor, not just a data or sample provider. Finally, be patient and resilient. Building a solid research career in Latin America takes longer—I am still in that process myself."