Álvaro Acosta Serrano obtained a Doctor in Science degree in Molecular Parasitology at the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. He then worked as a post-doctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, the University of Dundee Scotland (as International Wellcome Trust International Fellow), and then at the University of Glasgow as a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow.  He joined the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 2008, where he is currently a Senior Lecturer and directs a research team at the Departments of Vector Biology and Parasitology.  Alvaro has more than 20 years of experience working on different aspects of the biology of haemoflagellate parasites and vectors responsible for several Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), including Chagas disease, African sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis.  His main scientific contributions are in the areas of parasite biochemistry, vector-parasite interactions and disease control.  He currently serves as Deputy Editor for PLoS NTD.