Dr. Ricardo Soto-Rifo
Dr. Soto-Rifo has been always interested in the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling gene expression in Eukaryotes with a special emphasis in RNA viruses as study models.
Biochemist from Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Dr. Soto-Rifo did his undergraduate thesis at the Animal Virology Laboratory (currently the Centre of Acuiculture Biotechnology) under the supervision of Dr. Ana María Sandino studying the mechanisms of translation initiation employed by the Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus (IPNV). Then, he moved to Lyon, France where he obtained a Master in Sciences degree from Université Claude Bernard Lyon-1 in 2006 and then a Ph.D in Life Sciences from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (Université de Lyon) in 2010. He worked at the Human Virology Department (currently the International Center for Infectiology Research) under the supervision of Dr. Théophile Ohlmann on the translational control of the HIV-1 and HIV-2 genomic RNA. During his post-doctoral training at Dr. Ohlmann`s lab, Dr. Soto-Rifo worked on the remodeling and localization of the messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes (mRNPs) containing the HIV-1 genomic RNA by analyzing the role of the DEAD-box RNA helicase DDX3 in these processes. In 2013, he moved to the Virology Program, Biomedical Sciences Institute at Universidad de Chile Faculty of Medicine to start his own laboratory. Since, Dr. Soto-Rifo has established his research group, which is mainly focused in understand the mechanisms governing HIV and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) gene expression.