Education

Ph.D., 2016, Biochemistry. University of Oklahoma
B.S., 2012, Biology, Oklahoma Baptist University
2008, Animal Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – Brazil

Biography

Caio has served at SNU since 2017. Caio is originally from Natal, Brazil. Caio is married to Whitney França and they have two daughters Laura and Natalie França. Caio teachese introductory biology, genetics, biochemistry, and alternate Immunology and molecular biology to science majors and human physiology as a service course.

Alongside teaching biology at SNU, Caio leads research projects at the França Research Lab where we are interested in applying genomics approaches to mosquito-borne disease surveillance, genomics epidemiology and disease forecasting. We developed collaborations with state and local health agencies to inform public health applications.

During his time at SNU Dr. Caio Franca has received the Dr. Wally Quanstrom Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award, Southern Nazarene University, 2020 and the Oklahoma EPSCoR NASA Travel Grant Award, Southern Nazarene University, 2018. Caio also serves as a mentor for the CDC Western Gulf Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases summer internship program 2020

Hobbies or fun fact: I play acoustic guitar, enjoy road trips, like to nature hikes. I was a varsity soccer player as an undergraduate student.