João P.B. Viola received his M.D. degree in 1989 from the School of Medical Sciences, State
University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ); and a Ph.D. degree in Biophysics in 1998 from the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. During 1994 to 1997, Dr. Viola was appointed
Research Associate at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Center for Blood Research,
Harvard Medical School. João Viola returned to Brazil in 1998 as Investigator of the Ary Frauzino
Foundation for Research and Cancer Control. In 2006, Dr. Viola was appointed as Associate
Investigator at the Division of Cellular Biology (INCA) and in 2009 he was appointed Senior
Investigator. In 2012, Dr. Viola was appointed Head of the Program of Immunology and Tumor
Biology and Head of the Division of Experimental and Translational Research of the Brazilian
National Cancer Institute. He was member of the Board of the Ph.D. Program in Oncology (2007-
2018) and Chair of the Program of Research Fellowship in Oncology of the Brazilian National
Cancer Institute (2009-present). He was vice-chair (2020-2021) member (2018-2021) of the
Scientific Council of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, France). Currently,
Dr. Viola is member of the Governing Council of the Rio de Janeiro State Foundation for Research
(FAPERJ). Dr. Viola was first secretary (2002-2003) and president (2014-2015) of the Brazilian
Society in Immunology (SBI). Dr. Viola has received scholarship awards from the Brazilian
National Council for Research (CNPq) as Junior Investigator in Immunology (1999-2004) and as
Senior Investigator in Immunology (2004-present). He was also honored as Distinguish Scientist
of the State of Rio de Janeiro (2007-present) by the Rio de Janeiro State Foundation for Research
(FAPERJ). The long-term interest of Dr. Viola’s laboratory is to study the cellular and molecular
mechanisms of inducible gene transcription in lymphocyte activation and transformation. The main
area of investigation is focused on studying the role of transcription factors in cell proliferation,
differentiation and apoptosis, and their relation to tumor immune response. Dr. Viola is a member
of the Editorial Board of Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy (2006-2010), International Journal
of Oncology (2008-present), Academic Editor da PLoS ONE (2012-present) and Associate Editor
of the Frontiers in Immunology (2015-present). He also acts as consultant for several research
funding agencies and scientific Journals. Dr. Viola has mentored several graduate students (M.Sc.
and Ph.D.) and post-doctoral fellows.