André Damasio is a Scientific Advisor at UpDairy, a biotechnology company that develops innovative solutions for the dairy industry, and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biology - UNICAMP, where he leads the Laboratory of Enzymology and Molecular Biology of Microorganisms (LEBIMO). He has over 10 years of experience in biochemistry, molecular biology, and microbiology, with a focus on protein/enzyme production using filamentous fungi as microbial cell factories.At UpDairy, he provides scientific guidance and support for the development and optimization of fungal strains for animal-free production of dairy proteins. At LEBIMO, he conducts research on the genetic engineering of filamentous fungi, combining omics and synthetic biology to make robust fungal strains to produce recombinant proteins. He has published multiple papers in international journals and collaborated with international institutions and laboratories. He is passionate about applying his expertise and knowledge to solve scientific and industrial challenges and to advance the microbial biomanufacturing field.