Cintia Cruz

DPhil, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Malaria & Critical Illness and Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacometric determinants of efficacy in the treatment of Chagas Disease.

A DPhil student with the University of Oxford Nuffield Department of Medicine based at MORU in Bangkok, Cintia has worked as a Research Physician within the MORU Tropical Health Network since 2020. Currently the Brazil site coordinator for PLATCOV, a pharmacometrics platform trial of antivirals for the treatment of early COVID-19, Cintia has also coordinated sites in Africa for the COPCOV trial. In 2022, she was part of the team that launched the CHARM (Chagas Pharmacometrics Platform) project, which aims to organise the re-analysis of Chagas historical cohorts with unified serology techniques.

Interested in understanding the pharmacometric determinants of efficacy in the treatment of Chagas disease, Cintia’s main areas of research include Chagas disease, clinical pharmacology, and pharmacometrics.

Cintia’s research focuses on the predictive value of qPCR and serology as efficacy determinants in the treatment of Chagas disease. The overarching ambition is to develop and evaluate biomarkers that can help to predict the treatment response in this neglected disease, with a particular commitment to build capacity in affected areas. New treatments are needed for Chagas, but there is no proper way to evaluate their utility. This work is being conducted in collaboration with Hospital de Niños Ricardo Gutierrez in Argentina, Fundacion Fiocruz in Brazil and the University of Virginia in the United States.

In addition, Cintia’s ongoing research interests include clinical pharmacology and paediatric clinical pharmacology; and the pharmacometrics of Chagas disease and COVID-19.

Cintia arrived at MORU having completed her training as a paediatrician and clinical pharmacologist in her native Argentina. After earning her MD degree at University of Buenos Aires, Cintia did a 4-year paediatric residency at Hospital de Niños Ricardo Gutierrez, followed by an Advanced Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires certified by University of Buenos Aires. She was awarded an Argentine presidential scholarship in science and technology in 2016, funded by the Argentine presidential cabinet with the support from LASPAU and the Fulbright Commission.