The former student from the Graduate Program in Health Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine (FAMED) atthe Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Vanice Rodrigues Poester, supervised by Professor Melissa Orzechowski Xavier, was awarded the “IRA F. SALKIN Award 2020”. This award was granted bythe “International Society for Human and Animal Mycology” (ISHAM) in distinction to the article entitled "Potential use of Nikkomycin Z as an anti-Sporothrix spp. Drug" (doi: 10.1093/mmy/myaa054) which was consideredthe best scientific article of the year 2020 published in the journal Medical Mycology (FI: 2,822) by a young researcher member of ISHAM.

The award-winning paperwas part of the doctoral thesis of Vanice, presented and aprovedin February 2021, and was developed with the research group of the Laboratory of Mycology of FAMED/FURG, contributing to the advancement in the knowledge of therapeutic alternatives for sporotrichosis. Prof. David A. Stevens and Dr. David Larwood, international partnersof FURG, are among the co-authors of the study. The partnership was established by prof.Melissa Xavier during her time spent as Visiting Professor at the California Institute for Medical Research (San Jose, California, USA), promoted by FURG's Institutional Internationalization Program (Print-FURG), fundedby the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). This award demonstrates the relevanceof the CAPES-PrInt program in promoting fruitful international cooperation and improving quality of the scientific research in Brazil.

Sporotrichosis is the main subcutaneous mycosis in Brazil, with thousands of cases diagnosed in recent years in different Brazilian states, represents a serious and emerging national public health problem. In view of this, in 2020, this disease was included in the National List of Compulsory Notification diseases (Ordinance No. 264, of February 17, 2020 - DOU). The southern Rio Grande do Sul is one of the most hyper-endemic regions of the disease in the country. Therefore, since 2010, the Mycology Laboratory at FAMED-FURG has a multiprofessional team to help fighting this disease, with research, teaching and extension projects and actions, generating scientific data and and promoting public health policies, thus reaffirming its social role.

Graduated from PPGCS - FAMED - FURG Vanice Poester, receiving the announcement of the “IRA F. SALKIN Award 2020”

Professor Melissa O. Xavier, advisor to Vanice and senior author of the award-winning article, during her research activities at the California Institute for Medical Research (San Jose, USA).