Son of a renowned car clinicianioca, Rocha Lima was born in 1879. He graduated in medicine defending thesis on "Splenomegaly in acute infections". In his scientific work, works on yellow fever and exanthematic typhus stand out. The pathological anatomy of yellow fever infection was his favorite subject since the beginning of his scientific career, in 1903, alongside Oswaldo Cruz, at the Manguinhos Institute.

His histopathological research resulted in a profound change in the anatomical and clinical concept of yellow fever. The discovery of the etiological agent of the exanthematous type is the masterpiece of Rocha Lima, who also studied rickettsia, Peruvian wart, blastomycosis, Chagas disease, poradenitis and hemoglobinuric fever.

After graduation, Rocha Lima went to Germany, where he expanded, under the guidance of Ficker, his studies of microbiology and pathological anatomy, under the guidance of Kaiserling and Orth. He returned to the country two years later, when he collaborated intensely with Oswaldo Cruz, between 1903 and 1909. He worked at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. In 1920 he was invited to head the Butantan Institute and in 1927 he interrupted his career as a researcher to take over the direction of the Biological Institute at the invitation of Arthur Neiva. In 1940 he retired. He died on April 12, 1956, aged 76.