Guillermo Uceda Campos, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Research in Biology of Bacteria and Bacteriophages (CEPID B3), based at the Institute of Chemistry of the University of São Paulo (IQ/USP), was awarded the Best Poster Prize in the Postdoctoral Category at the IV Latin American Bacteriophage Conference. The conference, held on March 12–13 in Montevideo, Uruguay, is considered the leading regional event dedicated to bacteriophage research. 

Campos received the international award for presenting the study “Population dynamics of excised prophages in a phage training coevolution experiment”, conducted during his postdoctoral research. The study focuses on investigating the population dynamics of bacteriophages – viruses that infect bacteria – and on developing strategies to expand their use as therapeutic alternatives to control bacterial infections.

“Bacteriophages typically infect only a limited range of bacteria, which restricts their therapeutic application”, explains the author. “One way to overcome this is to ‘train’ phages in the laboratory to broaden their host range”, he adds, highlighting one of the study’s main objectives.

The findings presented at the conference revealed that, in addition to the phages introduced into the experiment, interactions between phages and their hosts were also influenced by viruses already present within the bacteria, known as prophages. “These prophages became activated, increased in abundance, and at certain points even competed with the experimental phages”, Campos explains. According to the researcher, this indicates that the phage training process is more complex than previously thought. “This understanding is important for the development of more effective therapies”, he argues.

Campos emphasizes that the results are the outcome of a collaborative team effort. “Professor Aline Maria da Silva (in memoriam) and Dr. Layla Farage Martins supervised the development of the work,” he notes. “Some of the phage training experiments were also carried out by undergraduate research students supervised by Professor Aline, especially Ana Mendes”, he concludes, highlighting the importance of integrating different levels of training in scientific research.

IV Latin American Bacteriophage Conference

The Latin American Bacteriophage Meeting is a biennial conference that brings together researchers from across Latin America to advance studies on bacteriophages. Its goal is to foster scientific exchange, strengthen collaborations, and promote research on the topic within the regional context.

The 2026 edition was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, on March 12–13, bringing together more than 100 participants from countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. In addition to poster sessions, the program included start-up presentations and talks by international speakers, promoting closer ties between academic research and the productive sector. Brazil was represented by Germán Sgró, also a researcher at CEPID B3, who served on the conference’s scientific committee and delivered a lecture on the structural biology of bacteriophages.