Maria Augusta Arruda has a PhD in Pharmacology and has almost 30 years of experience in research environments. She was a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and led the Brazil-University of Nottingham Partnership for the Discovery of New Drugs.
She is currently director of the National Biosciences Laboratory, part of the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (LNBIO-CNPEM), where she leads research groups that employ experimental approaches to integrative biology.