Dr. Oliveira received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Carlos Chagas Filho Biophysical Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in 1990. In 1991, he conducted postdoctoral research in the United States at the University of Arizona and was a visiting scientist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. From 1991 to 1999, he held positions in the Department of Medical Biochemistry at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In 2000, he received a Cientistas do Nosso Estado Fellowship and, in 2001, a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is currently a professor in the Departmento de Bioquimica Medica at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The long-term goal of Pedro Oliveira's research is to understand how blood-feeding organisms have adapted to the ingestion of large amounts of heme. Specifically, he plans to characterize the mechanisms responsible for heme detoxification and for maintenance of the redox balance in the midgut of blood-feeding animals. He also studies the effects of heme on the cell signaling and gene expression of cells of the midgut of blood-feeding arthropods.