Dinler Antunes

Dinler Antunes is an Assistant Professor of Computational Biology at the University of Houston's Department of Biology and Biochemistry, affiliated with the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling (CNRCS). His research focuses on structural modeling of protein-ligand complexes in cellular immunity, aiming to enhance personalized immunotherapy and predict off-target toxicities.

• Education: BS in Biomedicine (2008, UFRGS), MS in Genetics and Molecular Biology (2011, UFRGS), DSc in Bioinformatics (2014, UFRGS)
• Postdoctoral Training: Computational Cancer Biology Training Program (CCBTP) at Rice University

Research interests span structural bioinformatics, computational immunology, and cancer immunotherapy. He develops tools like HLA-Arena and DINC-COVID for modeling peptide-MHC complexes and SARS-CoV-2 docking. His work bridges computational methods with experimental validation in T-cell cross-reactivity prediction.

Scientific awards include the SCI Gold Oral Presentation Award (2020) and the Immuno-Oncology Young Investigators’ Forum PhD Postdoc Award (2020). His publications highlight applications of machine learning and conformational sampling in immunotherapy target selection, with a focus on HLA-peptide interactions and T-cell receptor dynamics.

As a permanent contributor to the Brazilian Society of Immunology Blog (SBlogI), he actively engages in science communication. He has organized numerous courses and tutorials on bioinformatics applications to immunology, vaccinology, and cancer research, and participates in international symposia on computational challenges in biomedical sciences.