Graduated in Biology and Medicine at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and then Master and PhD at the Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), followed by a Research fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, VA, USA. She is currently a Professor and the Director of the Instituto de Medicina Tropical do Rio Grande do Norte. Her main research interests include the study of complex diseases as infectious and non-infectious and immunology.