Noé U. de la Sancha’s Post

Honored to share that I've been selected as a 2026–2027 U.S. Fulbright Scholar! 🎉 Fulbright Association The Fulbright Program Based at Tapyta Reserve in the Interior Atlantic Forest, our team will use VirScan, a platform capable of screening for over 68,000 viruses, to map how pathogens move between wildlife, livestock, and local communities along the deforestation frontier. This follows work funded by the Walder Foundation. At its heart, this is a host-pathogen interactions research program. We are asking how host physiology, stress hormones, immune competence, body condition, shapes susceptibility and exposure to pathogens like arenaviruses, hantaviruses, tick-borne bacteria, and other zoonotic pathogens across a gradient of habitat disturbance. VirScan gives us an unprecedented serological window into those dynamics at the community level, turning antibody profiles into ecological data. This is a full-circle moment for me. I first went to Paraguay on a Fulbright as a graduate student. That trip changed the course of my research, and my life. I'm deeply grateful to be returning under this award, hosted by Fundación Moisés Bertoni and CEDIC. This July, I'll be heading back to Paraguay — this time with my family in tow — to continue research I've been building toward for more than 20 years. Thank you to my colleagues at DePaul University, the College of Science and Health, and everyone who has been part of this journey. 🔗 Full story below. #Fulbright #HostPathogenInteractions #OneHealth #WildlifeDisease #Paraguay #ZoonoticDisease #VirScan #SerologyEcology #Immunology #Microbiology