Immunology, Cancer & Glycomedicine

Team

Group Leader

Salomé S. Pinho

Group Leader, DVM, PhD

Salomé Pinho is the coordinator of the “Immunology, Cancer & GlycoMedicine” lab that focuses on the fascinating role of glycans and protein glycosylation in the regulation of the fundamental mechanisms underlying chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer, with the long-term goal of identifying novel disease biomarkers and new therapeutic strategies. Besides an enormous passion about Science, Salomé is a Mother of 2 (a boy and a girl) and enjoying time with family is what she loves the most!

Project Manager

Vanda Pinto

Project Manager, PhD
Biochemistry

Vanda is a Biochemist with a PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Porto, Portugal. She conducted her postdoctoral research, initially at the Bristol Medical School, UK, studying the insulin-PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in diabetic nephropathy. Later, she continued her research at IPATIMUP, focusing on glycosylation in lupus nephritis and inflammatory bowel disease. Currently, Vanda is the Project Manager of the GlycanTrigger project, funded by Horizon Europe. She is also involved in managing the ERC Synergy-funded project, GlycanSwitch, along with other ongoing projects. Additionally, she oversees the day-to-day management of the lab. Vanda enjoys traveling, spending time with her family, and actively participating in the parents’ association of her daughters’ school.

Post-Docs

Ângela Fernandes

Junior Researcher, PhD
Biology

Ângela’ research activity is focused on the cellular and molecular processes underlying cancer biology, specifically on how cellular glycosylation modulates tumor immune response. In her spare time she enjoys engaging in physical activities, particularly yoga and hiking. She also loves to travel and spend quality time with her family and friends.

Leticia Tavares-Gomes

Junior Researcher, PhD
Biology

Leticia’s work aims to investigate the changes in the gut mucosa glycome during the transition from health to intestinal inflammation, and to unravel how these changes influence the immune response. Leticia’s favorite way to utilize her free time is by cherishing moments with her baby boy, but she also enjoys immersing herself in a book and to share good food with her family and friends.

Joana Gaifem

Junior Researcher, PhD
Biology

Joana is interested in exploring the mechanisms underlying health to disease transition in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), in particular focusing on the impact of gut microbiota, immune response and host glycosylation in shaping the intestinal environment.
Joana loves cinema, sports and nature, so in her spare time she enjoys watching as many movies as she can, playing and watching basketball games, and traveling with her friends and family.

João Pereira

Junior Researcher, PhD
Biomedical Research

João’s research explores the frontier of tumor immunology, focusing on the role of glycans in modulating and triggering T-cell mediated immune response in colorectal cancer. His objective is to unravel glycan-mediated immune processes to pave the way for innovative therapeutic strategies. In his spare time, he enjoys to spend time with family and friends, practice martial arts, play the guitar and enjoy some metal music.

Inês Alves

Junior Researcher, PhD
Biochemistry

Inês’ research is focused on the role of glycans in mediating autoimmune responses, specifically through the study of immune cells and their glycan binding partners, as well as by analyzing glycome alterations in non-hematopoietic cells. Outside of the lab she likes to travel, play the piano, watch/read criminal documentaries and cook nice dinners for friends.

PhD students

Catarina Azevedo

PhD Student
Biochemistry

Catarina´s PhD project is focused in understanding the impact of T cell N-glycosylation in colorectal cancer (CRC) and in its precursor lesions, envisioning the reprogramming of T cell glycosignature as a novel and preventive immunotherapy for CRC prevention and treatment. In her spare time she likes to travel and meet new places, watch Friends, play sports, cook desserts and be with her friends and family.

Rita Amorim

PhD Student, MD
Medicine

Rita is a pediatric resident, interested in Pediatric Gastroenterology. She started her PhD programme in Health Data Science in 2020 and her project is focused on diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease. In her spare time she likes to travel to the tropics, read, have dinner with friends and do yoga.

Guilherme Faria

PhD Student
Biochemistry

Guilherme’s research interests center on understanding the mechanisms by which glycans facilitate the progression of colorectal tumors. Specifically, he aims to investigate how glycans mediate the interactions between cancer and immune cells, with a particular focus on metastasis and cancer associated with inflammatory bowel disease.In his free time, Guilherme enjoys watching movies, exercising and hanging out with friends.

Cláudia Rodrigues

PhD Student
Biology

Cláudia’s PhD work aims to study the role of host glycosylation in the interaction between gut microbiome and immune response in the context of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She pretends understand how alterations in glycocalyx may contribute to the gut dysbiosis and an harmful immune response. Outside of science she likes to spend her time with friends and family, working out in the gym, walking along the beach, watching movies/series, documentaries and as well cook.

Eduarda Gomes

PhD Student
Biochemistry

Eduarda’s PhD project is focused on gut glycome in health to disease transition, aiming to uncover how changes in cellular glycosylation trigger the transition to chronic inflammation and its progression to cancer, focusing on innate and adaptive immune response.
In her free time she enjoys going to indie/rock concerts and festivals, watching movies and series, camping and traveling to experience different cultures.

Rafaela Nogueira

PhD Student
Biochemistry

Rafaela’s PhD project aims to unravel the pathogenic events associated with autoimmunity, especially in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Her main goal is to understand how the glycosylation of B cells expressing disease-specific autoantibodies may constitute a selective advantage of autoreactive B cells associated with the pathogenesis of RA. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, singing and travelling to meet new cultures.

Beatriz Santos-Pereira

PhD Student
Biology

Bia´s PhD work explores the role of glycans in autoimmunity. She aims to decipher how abnormal glycosylation of T cells affects their activity and function. Additionally, she is investigating how these T cells instruct B cells to produce autoantibodies, which may ultimately contribute to the development of an autoreactive and proinflammatory phenotype in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In her spare time she likes to travel, make macramé and polymer clay crafts, and to be with friends and family.

Carolina Dantas

PhD Student
Biochemistry

Carolina’s PhD project aims to unravel molecular changes occurring in the gut mucosa glycome in the health-to-intestinal inflammation transition. In addition, her project will explore the potential of reprogramming the gut glycome through metabolism-driven intervention, envisioning the preclusion to disease state, specifically in Crohn’s disease. In her spare time she likes to go to the gym, travel to meet new places and cultures or to just grab a beer and see the sunset with her friends.

Master Students

Mariana Moreira

MSc Student
Biomedical Science

Mariana’s MSc project focus on exploring how glycans, in the BCR variable domain, affect the antigen-specific B cell function in Rheumatoid arthritis. Outside the lab, she enjoys baking, exercising, reading and going to the cinema – preferably with a big bucket of popcorn.

Manuel Mourato

MSc Student
Informatics

Manuel’s Master thesis is about using bioinformatic tools to access how changes in gene expression profiles, namely of the MGAT1 gene, influence the expression of other genes and enrichment of biological pathways, in the context of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In his spare time, Manuel loves to sing in a choir, travel and play with his baby girl.

Research Technician

Pedro Almeida

Research Technician (MSc)
Biochemistry

Pedro’s is interested in exploring the bridge between bladder cancer and the role of the innate immune system as a potentiator of the anti-tumoral response, using glycans as reprogrammers of these immune cells. In his spare time he enjoys playing sports, in particular tennis and paddle tennis, watching TV shows, hanging out with friends and playing video games.

Research Fellows

Pedro Carneiro

Research Fellow (BSc)
Biotechnology

Pedro is investigating how glycosylation of regulatory T cells (Tregs) impacts the definition and modulation of cellular functions, within the field of autoimmunity, as well as understand how the reprogramming of Treg glycans presents a novel opportunity for optimizing therapy in autoimmune diseases. In his free time Pedro enjoys going outdoors with friends and family, especially travelling, camping and hiking.

Raquel Castro

Research Fellow (MSc)
Biochemistry

Raquel is interested in understanding how alterations in the glycosylation profile in the colonic mucosa impacts the homeostatic/inflammatory processes associated with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She wants to comprehend how these changes underlie the development of this pathology, with the ultimate goal of designing new strategies to prevent IBD. In her spare time, she enjoys reading a good book, attending concerts, traveling, and spending quality time with friends and family.

Ariana Correia-Silva

Research Fellow (MSc)
Biochemistry

Ariana is interested in understanding if abnormal kidney glyco-signature represents a novel glycan-based danger-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) that triggers a pathogenic autoreactive immune response leading to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus pathology. Additionally, Ariana enjoys the beach, cinema, and reading. In her free time, she loves watching the sunset on the beach, curling up on the couch with a good book or TV show/movie, and spending time with friends and family.