PandemicTech awards Mayra Ameneiros an Innovation Fellowship
Argentinian biorisk management and biosecurity expert Mayra Belén Ameneiros has been awarded a PandemicTech Innovation Fellowship for her efforts to support PandemicTech’s collaboration with Cairo University to build biosafety and biosecurity training capacity in Egypt. Mayra will work directly with PandemicTech senior advisor Luis Ochoa Carrera on implementing PandemicTech-sponsored projects in Egypt that address this critical need through cross border collaboration with Egyptian biosafety professionals, organizations, and thought leaders.
Miss Ameneiros is a member of the Biosafety Committee and the Biorisk Management Committee at the Argentine Normalization and Certification Institute (IRAM) and is a member of the Biosafety and Biosecurity Subcommittee at the Argentinean Association of Microbiology (AAM), an International Federation of Biosafety Associations (IFBA) Member Biosafety Association.
In 2019, Mayra won the MERRICK Scholarship for the South American Region to Certify the technical competence of individuals engaged in Biorisk Management. Due to this achievement, Mayra has a Professional Certification in Biorisk Management from IFBA. In 2020, she was sponsored again and acquired a Professional Certification in Biosecurity from IFBA. Mayra is the second professional in Argentina to achieve this IFBA Professional Certification.
Mayra has been recognized as a young emerging leader in her area by the IFBA when they nominated her to participate in its Global Mentorship Program 2020/2021 designed to link experts with less experienced counterparts in LATAM developing scientific communities. She serves as a Mentor in this program working with mentees from National Reference Laboratories in Paraguay and México. In 2021, she was selected as one of the 30 young scientists from the Global South to participate in the Biosecurity and Diplomacy Workshop from UNODA (United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs).
Mayra was the Biosafety and Quality Advisor at INTA (The National Agricultural Technology Institute) for their new containment laboratory and served as a Technical Advisor for the Ministry of Health to design fully equipped Mobile Laboratories while advising about containment and Biosafety/Biosecurity Practices. Mayra is also a Professor at the Argentinian Chemical Association (AQA) where she taught courses about “Biosafety in the Laboratory.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, she translated into Spanish and taught a course in association with Sandia National Laboratories about “SARS-CoV-2 Biorisk Management” designed for Latin American professionals.
Mayra has over 13 years of experience in different areas as Clinical Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Hematology, and Serology, in both public and private sectors. She has experience in basic research as she was a researcher for more than 6 years in the “Clinical Hospital” and in the University of Buenos Aires. She has a BS in Biochemistry, with a Biotechnology orientation from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and an MSc in Blood Banks and Immunohematology from the Argentinian Association of Hemotherapy, Immunology and Cellular Therapy (AAHITC).
