Hiro Goto is a Senior Associate Professor of the Medical Faculty of the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and develops research at the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Sao Paulo, of Medical Faculty USP, Brazil. She has a degree in Medicine (1972) and a Ph.D. (1988) from USP and did a post-doc at the Department of Immunology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden (1990 - 1993). For over 25 years has been working with leishmaniases, neglected tropical diseases. Her area of interest is immunopathology of human and experimental leishmaniases and diagnosis of human tegumentary leishmaniasis and human and canine visceral leishmaniases. She has over 90 articles and reviews in international journals in the area. The present research lines in immunopathology focus on non-specific elements such as lipoprotein fractions, insulin-like growth factor-I in Leishmania infection development, immunopathological mechanisms of lesions in experimental leishmaniasis, susceptibility gene polymorphism and lipid-related factors in subjects in endemic areas of visceral leishmaniasis. In diagnosis, she worked within the network of WHO on the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis and is presently developing assays to improve the diagnosis of leishmaniases using recombinant Leishmania antigens. For studies on human tegumentary and visceral leishmaniases collaborations are maintained with institutions in endemic areas. Presently, she is also focusing on Leishmania parasite genomics and Leishmania vector controls. Some projects involve collaboration with researchers in the UK (VALIDATE network, University of York). Recently she maintains collaboration in vaccine research for bovine mastitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus.