ClÁudio Gomes

Cláudio M. Gomes is graduated in Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (1994). Soon after, Cláudio Gomes joined the Gulbenkian PhD Program in Biology and Medicine, getting his PhD degree in Biochemistry in 1999. Before setting up his independent research unit, he was Assistant Professor at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In 2013 he obtained the title of Agregado in Biochemistry also at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Presently, Cláudio M. Gomes is group leader of the Protein Biochemistry Folding and Stability laboratory at Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica. His group develops basic research on the molecular mechanisms underlying protein folding and structure-function relationships, with a focus on models of biomedical interest related to misfolded proteins involved in metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.

Protein Biochemistry Folding and Stability laboratory

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Henriques, B.J., Lucas, T.G., Rodrigues, J.V., Frederiksen, J.H., Teixeira, M.S., Bross, P., Gomes, C.M. (2014) Ethylmalonic Encephalopathy ETHE1 R163W/R163Q mutations alter protein stability and redox properties. PLoS One 9(9):e107157

Cristovão, J.S., Leal, S.S., Cardoso, I., Gomes, C.M. (2013) Small molecules present in the cerebrospinal fluid metabolome influence superoxide dismutase 1 aggregation. Int J Mol Sci 14(9):19128-45.

Carvalho, S.B. Botelho, H.M., Leal, S.S., Cardoso, I., Fritz, G., Gomes, C.M. (2013) Intrinsically disordered and aggregation prone regions underlie beta-aggregation in S100 proteins. PLoS ONE 8(10):e76629

Leal, S.S., Cardoso, I., Valentine, J.S. and Gomes, C.M. (2013) Calcium ions promote superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) aggregation into non fibrillar amyloid: a link to toxic effects of calcium overload in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)? J Biol Chem 288(35):25219-28

Hauke Werner

Hauke Werner received his PhD degree in Biology from the University of Heidelberg in 2001. He then joined the Yale University School of Medicine as post-doctoral researcher. Currently he is a research group leader in the Neurogenetics department at the Max-Planck-Institute of Experimental Medicine. Hauke Werner is also a lecturer in Neurobiology at the University of Göttingen and was awarded, in 2012, with a Young Scientist Award from the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM). His major interest in the Neurosciences field is to investigate the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms of myelination and the functional cooperation between neurons and glial cells.

Neurogenetics department

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Dere E, Winkler D, Ritter C, Ronnenberg A, Poggi G, Patzig J, Gernert M, Müller C, Nave KA, Ehrenreich H, Werner HB. (2014) Gpm6b deficiency impairs sensorimotor gating and modulates the behavioral response to a 5-HT2A/C receptor agonist. Behav Brain Res. pii: S0166-4328(14)00239-3.

Werner HB. (2013) Do we have to reconsider the evolutionary emergence of myelin? Front Cell Neurosci. 7:217.

Patzig J, Dworschak MS, Martens AK, Werner HB. (2014) Septins in the glial cells of the nervous system. Biol Chem. 395(2):143-9.

Nawaz S, Schweitzer J, Jahn O, Werner HB. (2013) Molecular evolution of myelin basic protein, an abundant structural myelin component. Glia. 61(8):1364-77.

LuÍsa Pereira

Luísa Pereira has a BSc degree in Biology (1995), a MSc degree in Applied Human Genetics (1997) and a PhD in Biology - field of Human Population Genetics (2002) from the Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto. From 2002 to 2004, she was a post-doctoral researcher at IPATIMUP and Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, and in 2004 she was hired as Researcher at Instituto de Patologia Molecular e Imunologia da Universidade do Porto (IPATIMUP). Since 2006 she is group leader of Genetic Diversity group at IPATIMUP, being interested in using genetics to infer the past and evolution of human populations as well as on disentangling between neutral and pathological diversities.

Genetic Diversity group

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Fernandes V, Alshamali F, Alves M, Costa MD, Pereira JB, Silva NM, Cherni L, Harich N, Cerny V, Soares P, Richards MB, Pereira L. (2012). The Arabian cradle: mitochondrial relicts of the first steps along the southern route out of Africa. Am J Hum Genet. 90: 347-55

Soares P, Alshamali F, Pereira JB, Fernandes V, Silva NM, Afonso C, Costa MD, Musilová E, Macaulay V, Richards MB, Cerny V, Pereira L. (2012). The Expansion of mtDNA Haplogroup L3 within and out of Africa. Mol Biol Evol.29: 915-27

Behar DM, Yunusbayev B, Metspalu M, Metspalu E, Rosset S, Parik J, Rootsi S, Chaubey G, Kutuev I, Yudkovsky G, Khusnutdinova EK, Balanovsky O, Semino O, Pereira L, Comas D, Gurwitz D, Bonne-Tamir B, Parfitt T, Hammer MF, Skorecki K, Villems R. (2010). The genome-wide structure of the Jewish people. Nature 466: 238-42

Pereira L, Freitas F, Fernandes V, Pereira JB, Costa MD, Costa S, Máximo V, Macaulay V, Rocha R, Samuels DC. (2009).The diversity present in 5140 human mitochondrial genomes. Am J Hum Genet. 84: 628-40

Miguel ConstÂncia

Miguel Constância has a degree in biology (1988) and a Master degree in Cancer Biology (1993) from Universidade do Porto. Soon after, Miguel Costância went to University of Cambridge, where he obtained his PhD in Developmental Genetics in 2000. In 2004, he became group leader in Babraham Institute in Cambridge University. Currently, Miguel Constância is a Senior Lecturer in Reproductive Biology in Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology of University of Cambridge. His main research interests rely on the epigenetic basis of metabolic disease as well as the imprinted genes that control fetal growth and placental function.

Reproductive Biology in Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology of University of Cambridge

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Mikaelsson MK, Constância M, Dent C, Wilkinson LS, Humby T. (2013) Placental programming of anxiety in adulthood revealed by Igf2-null models. Nat Commun, 4:2311.

Sandovici I, Smith NH, Dekker-Nitert M, Ackers-Johnson M, Uribe-Lewis S, Ito Y, Jones RH, Marquez VE, Cairns WJ, Tadayyon M, O’Neill LP, Murrell A, Ling C, Constância M, Ozanne S. (2011) Maternal diet and aging alter the epigenetic control of a promoter-enhancer interaction at Hnf4a gene in rat pancreatic islets. Proc Natl. Acad Sci USA, 108(13):5449-54.

Angiolini E, Coan P, Sandovici I, Iwajomo OH, Peck G, Burton GJ, Sibley CP, Reik W, Fowden AL, Constância M. (2011). Developmental adaptations to increased fetal nutrient demand in mouse genetic models of Igf2-mediated overgrowth. FASEB J, 25(5):1737-45.

Dilworth M, Kusinski L, Cowley E, Ward S, Husain S, Constância M, Sibley C, Glazier J (2010). Placental-specific Igf2 knockout mice exhibit hypocalcemia and adaptive changes in placental calcium transport. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 107(8):3894-9.

Samuel Bertrand

Samuel Bertrand is graduated in Chemistry by the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie of Lille, France (2003). In 2009 he finished his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry, supervised by Prof. O. Duval, by the Université d'Angers, France. After a period as project manager in valorisation of natural product by Vegepolys (French competitive cluster, Angers, France), he moved in 2010 to the Ecole de Pharmacie Genève-Lausanne, Université de Genève, Switzerland, where he worked as a post-doctoral researcher supervised by Prof. J.-L. Wolfender on metabolomics and fungal natural product research. Since 2013, he is Assistant Professor at Laboratoire Mer Molécules Santé (See, Molecules, Health lab.), UFR des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques (School of pharmaceutical and biological sciences), Université de Nantes, France. His main field of interest is metabolomics approaches in fungal natural product and lipid drug discovery.

Laboratoire Mer MolÉcules SantÉ

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Bertrand S, Bohni N, Schnee S, Schumpp O, Gindro K, Wolfender JL. (2014) Metabolite induction via microorganism co-culture:A potential way to enhance chemicaldiversity for drug discovery. Biotechnol Adv 32(6):1180-1204.

Bertrand S, Azzollini A, Schumpp O, Bohni N, Schrenzel J, Monod M, Gindro K, Wolfender JL. (2014) Multi-well fungal co-culture for de novo metabolite-induction in time-series studies based on untargeted metabolomics. Mol Biosyst 10(9):2289-98.

Bertrand S, Schumpp O, Bohni N, Bujard A, Azzollini A, Monod M, Gindro K, Wolfender JL. (2013) Detection of metabolite induction in fungal co-cultures on solid media by high-throughput differential ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry fingerprinting. J Chromatogr A 1292:219-28.

Bertrand S, Schumpp O, Bohni N, Monod M, Gindro K, Wolfender JL. (2013) De novo production of metabolites by fungal co-culture of Trichophyton rubrum and Bionectria ochroleuca. J Nat Prod 76(6):1157-65.

SÉrgio Almeida

Sérgio de Almeida graduated in Biochemistry from Universidade de Coimbra and in 2007 received his PhD degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Universidade do Porto. Sérgio Almeida joined the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM) as a post-doctoral researcher and currently he is a group leader at the IMM and Assistant Professor at the Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa. Among several prizes, Sérgio de Almeida received the LabMed Science Award in 2006, the Pfizer Award for Basic Research in 2011 and the FCT Investigator Grant in 2013. His major scientific goal is to understand how changes in transcription, pre-mRNA processing, chromatin modification and DNA damage response are linked to the development of human diseases such as cancer.

IMM RESEARCH LAB

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Carvalho S, Vítor AC, Sridhara SC, Martins FB, Raposo AC, Desterro JM, Ferreira J, de Almeida SF. (2014) SETD2 is required for DNA double-strand break repair and activation of the p53-mediated checkpoint. Elife. 3:e02482.

de Almeida SF, Carmo-Fonseca M. (2014) Reciprocal regulatory links between cotranscriptional splicing and chromatin. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 32:2-10.

Carvalho S, Raposo AC, Martins FB, Grosso AR, Sridhara SC, Rino J, Carmo-Fonseca M, de Almeida SF. (2013) Histone methyltransferase SETD2 coordinates FACT recruitment with nucleosome dynamics during transcription. Nucleic Acids Res. 41(5):2881-93.

de Almeida SF, Carmo-Fonseca M. (2012) Design principles of interconnections between chromatin and pre-mRNA splicing. Trends Biochem Sci. 37(6):248-53.