Beatriz Estevam selected for the Sanger Prize, UK

We are delighted to announce that Beatriz Rodrigues Estevam, an undergraduate student from our research group, has been awarded the Sanger Prize, a highly competitive distinction that provides students from low- to upper-middle-income countries with a three-month research internship at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK. Beatriz, who has been part of our team since 2020, will undertake her research at the Sanger Institute in the second semester of 2025.

About the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, located on the Genome Campus in Cambridge, UK, is a world-leading genomics research center. Established in 1992, it played a pivotal role in sequencing the human genome and continues to drive groundbreaking discoveries in genetics, infectious diseases, cancer, and computational biology. The institute collaborates globally to advance biomedical science through large-scale genomic studies and innovative computational approaches.

About the Sanger Prize

The Sanger Prize selection process consisted of two stages. First, the candidates submitted a CV, a letter of interest, and contact details of academic referees. Then, each candidate has to write a commentary essay analyzing a major genomics initiative from the past decade, evaluating its impact and how it delivered on its promises. This is what she has to say about the process:

I chose to write about the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) and titled my essay “Unraveling Earth’s Eukaryotic Genomes: Why Not Sequence It All?” I knew I wanted to focus on sequencing but didn’t have an initiative in mind. Almost as a joke, I asked myself, “Why not sequence everything?” That question led me to the Darwin Tree of Life project, which we had discussed in a previous lab meeting, and ultimately to the EBP.

I’m deeply excited and thankful for this opportunity. I can’t wait to get involved with the institute and its community. I look forward to the experiences that lie ahead

Beatriz’s Research Contributions

Within our research group, Beatriz has been actively engaged in computational biology, contributing to several significant projects:

• Evolutionary studies of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic (Fellowship PUB/USP).
• Evolutionary analyses of CAZymes in microorganisms (Fellowship PUB/USP).
• Impact of secondary structure on splicing (Fellowship BEPE FAPESP).
• Current research on sugarcane introns (funded by FAPESP and RCG2I), aiming to optimize the CRISPR-Cas system for improved genetic editing in this crop.

Beatriz is an undergraduate student in Biological Sciences at ESALQ/USP and joined our Laboratory of Computational, Evolutionary, and Systems Biology at CENA/USP during her second semester of studies—despite having no prior experience in programming or bioinformatics. However, she quickly developed a strong interest in computational analysis of biological data. Her first scientific research project resulted in the publication of a research article describing CoCoView, a computational tool developed in Python that applies information theory to study the evolution of protein-coding sequences at the codon level.

As part of her ongoing academic journey, Beatriz completed a research internship in 2023 at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPIMP) in Potsdam, Germany.

Winning the Sanger Prize is an outstanding achievement that reflects Beatriz’s dedication, hard work, and talent in computational biology. We are incredibly proud of her success and look forward to her future contributions to the field!