Naíla Barbosa da Costa

naila.barbosa.da.costa@umontreal.ca | Personal webpage: nailacosta.weebly.com

Summary

Currently I’m a postdoctoral reseracher at the INRS-ETE, supervised by Jérôme Comte. I did a PhD in biology at the University of Montreal, in the Shapiro lab a MSc in ecology at the Ferderal University of Minas Gerais, supervised by Alessandra Giani. I am interested in microbial and aquatic ecology, evolution and genomics. I am Fluent in English, French and Portuguese and I am engaged in science popularization and education in these three languages. I tell a bit of my story and research in this video.

Key skills

Bioinformatics for microbiome studies (metagenomics, whole-genome and amplicon sequencing)
Data wrangling and data analysis applied to microbial ecology (R, Shell, basic Python and SQL)
Microbiology and molecular biology techniques (bacteria isolation, plasmid cloning, PCR and qPCR, DNA fingerprinting, NGS)
General limnologic field techniques, phytoplankton identification
Teaching and science popularization (written and oral communication)
Creative, collaborative, responsible and communicative

Education

Feb.2023-now Institut national de la recherche scientifique - Eau Terre Environnement (INRS-ETE)

Postdoctoral researcher

Sep.2016-Nov.2022 University of Montreal (UdeM), Canada

Ph.D. student in Biological Sciences - GPA: 4.0/4.3
Short academic internship at University of Wisconsin at Madison, USA

2013-2015 Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil

Master of Science in Ecology, Conservation and Wildlife Management - GPA: 94.67/100

2008-2013 Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil

Bachelor in Biological Sciences - GPA: 4.78/5.00
Exchange student at University of Wisconsin at Madison, USA - GPA: 3.50/4.00 (Spring 2012)

Professional experience

2022 Lecturer at University of Montreal (Montreal, Canada)

Course of Protistology (BIO2150, Fall 2022)

2018-2021 Teaching assistant at University of Montreal (Montreal, Canada)

Main assistant of Environmental Microbiology (BIO2405, Winter 2019-2021)
Grader of Molecular Biology (BIO1101, Summer 2020) and The cell and uniformity of organisms (BIO1954, Winter 2020)
General assistant of Microbial Ecology (BIO3721, Winter 2020)
General assistant of Protistology (BIO2150, Fall 2018-2020)

July-Aug.2015 “Folha de São Paulo” Newspaper (São Paulo, Brazil)

Trainee in scientific journalism, six published reports

2013-2014 Federal University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)

Guest lecturer in the courses: Evolution II (BIG033, Oct. 2013) and Methods on Field Ecology (ICB021, Aug.2013 and May 2014)

Publications

Peer-reviewed

2023 Monchamp M-E, Taranu ZE, Rebecca E. Garner, Rehill T, Morissette O, Iversen LL, Fugère V, Littlefair JE, Barbosa da Costa N, Desforges JE, Sánchez Schacht JR, Derry AM, Cooke SJ, Barrett RDH, Walsh DA, Ragoussis J, Albert M, Cristescu ME, Gregory-Eaves I. Prioritizing taxa for genetic reference database development to advance inland water conservation. Biological Conservation doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109963

2022 Kraemer SA, Barbosa da Costa N, Olivia A, Huot Y, Walsh DA. A resistome survey across hundreds of freshwater bacterial communities reveals the impacts of veterinary and human antibiotics use. Frontiers in Microbiology doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.995418

2022 Barbosa da Costa N, Hébert M-P, Fugère V, Terrat Y, Fussmann G, Gonzalez A, Shapiro BJ. A glyphosate-based herbicide cross-selects for antibiotic resistance genes in bacterioplankton communities. mSystems doi: 10.1128/msystems.01482-21

2022 MacKeigan PW, Garner RE, Monchamp ME, Walsh DA, Onana VE, Kraemer SA, Pick FR, Beisner BE, Agbeti MD, Barbosa da Costa N, Shapiro BJ, Gregory-Eaves I. Comparing microscopy and DNA metabarcoding techniques for identifying cyanobacteria assemblages across hundreds of lakes. Harmful Algae doi: 10.1016/j.hal.2022.102187

2021 Barbosa da Costa N, Fugère V, Hébert M-P, Xu CCY, Barrett R, Beisner BE, Bell G, Yargeau V, Fussmann G, Shapiro BJ. Resistance, resilience, and functional redundancy of freshwater microbial communities facing multiple agricultural stressors in a mesocosm experiment. Molecular Ecology 30:4771-4788. doi: 10.1111/mec.16100

2021 Hébert M-P, Fugère V, Beisner B, Barbosa da Costa N, Barrett R, Bell G, Shapiro BJ, Yargeau V, Gonzalez A, Fussmann G. Widespread agrochemicals differentially affect zooplankton biomass and community structure. Ecological Applications 31(7):e02423. doi: 10.1002/eap.2423

2020 Kraemer SA, Barbosa da Costa N, Shapiro BJ, Fradette M, Huot Y, Walsh D. A large-scale assessment of lakes reveals a pervasive signal of land use on bacterial communities. The ISME Journal 14:3011-3023. doi: 10.1038/s41396-020-0733-0

2020 Fugère V, Hébert M, Barbosa da Costa N, Xu CCY, Barrett RDH, Beisner BE, Bell G, Fussmann G, Shapiro BJ, Yargeau V, Gonzalez A. Community rescue in experimental phytoplankton communities facing severe herbicide pollution. Nat Ecol Evol 4:578-588. doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1134-5

2016 Costa NB, Kolman MA, Giani A. Cyanobacteria diversity in alkaline saline lakes in the Brazilian Pantanal wetland: a polyphasic approach. Journal of Plankton Research 38(6): 1389-1403. https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbw066

Book chapter

2021 Oki Y, Nascimento IM, da Costa NB, Maia RA, Takahashi JA, Ferraz V, Correa Junior A, Wilson GW. Effectiveness of Endophytic Fungi from Baccharis dracunculifolia Against Sucking Insect and Fungal Pathogens. In: Rosa LH (eds) Neotropical Endophytic Fungi. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53506-3_15

For science popularization

2018 Barbosa da Costa N. Scientists Investigate Eutrophication Mystery and find Oligotrophication Instead. Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin doi: 10.1002/lob.10266

Awards and scholarships

January 2023-December 2023 (Refused) PBEEE postdoctoral scholarship FRQNT (Quebec-Canada) $35,000 CAD

December 2022 UdeM department awards Fonds de Bourses Sciences Biologiques (doctorat) $1,000 CAD

December 2021 UdeM department awards Fonds de Bourses Sciences Biologiques (doctorat) $1,000 CAD

December 2020 UdeM department awards Fonds de Bourses Sciences Biologiques (doctorat) $1,500 CAD

October 2020 BIPOC spotlight CSEE microgrant $200

June2020 Best Ph.D. poster presentation GRIL 2020 online symposium $100 CAD

May2018-Aug2020 Ph.D. merit scholarship FRQNT (Quebec-Canada) $49,000 CAD

Sep2016-Aug2019 Ph.D. training scholarship NSERC-CREATE ÉcoLac $26,000 CAD

Dec2016 UdeM Biology Department awards Fonds de bourse Étienne-Magnin $5,000 CAD

Sep2016-Aug2018 International tuition fees exemption FESP (UdeM-Canada) $53,000 CAD

May2016-Apr2017 (Refused) Research fellowship CIMO (Finnish Centre for International Mobility) Є13,500

Mar2013-Mar2015 Master’s scholarship CAPES (Brazil) $36,000 BRL

Aug2012-Feb2013 Undergraduate Scholarship FAPEMIG (Brazil) $2,800 BRL

Jan2012-Jun2012 Undergraduate exchange program Minas Mundi and Santander Bank (Brazil) $6,000 BRL

Dec2010-Jul2012 Undergraduate Research Scholarship CEMIG (Brazil) $3,200 BRL

2007 Excellence in High School studies 1st place Senior year CNEC-CEI (Sete Lagoas, Brazil) $150 BRL

2006 Excellence in High School studies 1st place Junior year CNEC-CEI (Sete Lagoas, Brazil) $150 BRL

2005 Excellence in High School studies 1st place Sophomore year CNEC-CEI (Sete Lagoas, Brazil) $150 BRL

Community engagement

Peer-review in scientific publications

2023 Reviewer for Aquatic Ecology Sciences Journal 2022 Reviewer for Molecular Ecology 2021 Reviewer for PLOS ONE

Workshop lecturer

2021 Automating tasks with the Unix Shell as a certified Carpentry instructor in the Arizona State University (online)

2017 I’m a microbe! Can’t you see me? In: ÉcoLac-GRIL workshops, Station de Biologie des Laurentides, Saint-Hippolyte, Canada. Co-organizers: Costa N.B., Reis P.C.J., Tran P.

2016 What’s a green dot in the lake? It’s phytoplankton! In: ÉcoLac-GRIL workshops, Station de Biologie des Laurentides, Saint-Hippolyte, Canada. Co-organizers: Costa N.B., Reis P.C.J.

Science outreach

Portfolio with articles for science popularization (most in Portuguese): https://nailabcosta.contently.com
YouTube video: Rotina de uma Reação de PCR (audio in Portuguese)

Member of organizing commitee

2019 EDI workshop at the QCBS symposium, Montreal, Canada

2018-2019 Microbial Ecology Seminar Series, Montreal, Canada

2018 BIOME (BIOinformatics for METabarcoding) workshop, Saint-Hippolyte, Canada

2010 and 2011 Darwin Day III (2011) and Darwin Day II (2010) Symposia, UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Relevant volunteer experience

Currently

Certified Carpentry instructor since April 2021
Editor of Le beagle: QCBS bilingual (EN/FR) blog for science communication since March 2019
CSEE (Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution) student representative since March 2019

2017-2018 Participation as a GRIL member of the Eureka festival (Montreal, June 2018) and 24 hours of science (Montreal, May 2017 and 2018)

July 2015 Assistant at “UFMG & Schools – Educating to science” (UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil)

2010-2012 Member of the student group “Evolução em Foco” (UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil)