On November 27 and 28, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of São Paulo (ICB/USP) held the First Meeting of the Department of Microbiology. The event brought together faculty, researchers, technical staff and students, and marked the presentation of the Research Excellence Awards and Honorable Mentions for projects conducted in 2025. Award recipients also had the opportunity to present their work to the audience.

Of the eight honors granted, four went to members of three laboratories associated with the Center for Research in Biology of Bacteria and Bacteriophages (CEPID B3): the Research, Outreach and Teaching Laboratory in Microbiology, the Laboratory of Applied Structural Biology to Drugs, and the Laboratory of Protein Structure and Evolution. Below is the list of awardees:

• Research Excellence Award – Undergraduate Research Category

Luis Victor Santana Rosa (Advisor: Márcio Vinicius Bertacine Dias)
Project: Crystal structure of dihydrodipicolinate synthase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in complex with pyruvate and insights into allosteric regulation

• Honorable Mention – Postdoctoral Category

Anacleto Silva de Souza (Supervisor: Cristiane Guzzo)
Project: Antagonistic Trends Between Binding Affinity and Drug-Likeness in SARS-CoV-2 Mpro Inhibitors Revealed by Machine Learning

• Honorable Mention – Doctoral Category

Gabriel Guarany de Araujo (Advisor: Cristiane Guzzo)
Project: Functional Cargo in Membrane Vesicles from a Citrus Pathogen

• Honorable Mention – Master’s Category

Lara Nardi Baroni (Advisor: Rita Ferreira)
Project: The adoption of a superhero bacteria: Escherichia coli and its adventures in microbiology education