Rodrigo is a mucosal immunologist interested in understanding how pathogens interact with the host in mucosal surfaces. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied  dissemination of the bacterium Yersinia pestis during bubonic plague, in the laboratory of Dr. Virginia L. Miller. Currently, Rodrigo uses microscopy imaging to study the nasal and genital tract mucosae to visualize immune cells of the immune response in the steady state and during infection.