Flavia Souza-smith MS, PhD

Flavia M. Souza-Smith received a bachelor’s in Physical and Respiratory Therapies from EMESCAM University in Brazil. She received her master’s and PhD in Physiological Sciences from the Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil, but performed her PhD research in the Department of Pharmacology at LSUHSC. In 2009, she joined the Department of Physiology at LSUHSC as a postdoctoral fellow. After completing her fellowship, she was hired as an instructor of physiology and has since been promoted to the rank of assistant professor. Flavia’s PhD research focused on vascular remodeling in diabetes and her postdoctoral studies focused on alcohol effects on lymphatic myogenic response and measurements of isolated lymphatic cytosolic calcium. As an instructor, her focus was lymphatic vessel hyperpermeability following alcohol intoxication, as well as the metabolic consequences of the interaction between mesenteric lymphatic vessel leakage and perilymphatic adipose tissue.