ANA RITA CARLOS

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    Departamento de Biologia Animal


    Email arcarlos@ciencias.ulisboa.pt

    Carreira Docente Universitário
    Categoria Professor Auxiliar

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    I obtained my PhD at the University of Oxford, UK, in Dr. Madalena Tarsounas laboratory, studying the role of DNA damage responses in maintaining genomic stability and preventing tumorigenesis. After my PhD, driven by my interest in disease mechanism, I joined Dr. Miguel Soares laboratory at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), Portugal. I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in 2014 to address how regulation of iron-heme metabolism impacts steady-state and the establishment of disease tolerance to different types of infection. In 2019, I was awarded by FCT with an Assistant Researcher position and with a L’Oréal Portugal Medals of Honor for Women in Science to pursue a new line of research where I combined my expertise on DNA damage and oxidative stress and mechanisms of disease, particularly intra- and extracellular communication, tackling the mechanisms behind LAMA2-related muscular dystrophies. In 2022, with this line of work I was rewarded with a competitive tenure track position as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (CIÊCIAS ULisboa). From 2024, I am the group leader of the Molecular Mechanims of Disease laboratory at CE3C-CIÊCIAS ULisboa. Throughout my career I have worked with a wide spectrum of in vitro (human and mouse cells) and in vivo (mouse models) models of disease (cancer, malaria, sepsis, iron deregulation, Lama2-deficiency). I have developed new cell lines using CRISPR-Cas9, lentiviral, retroviral or plasmid transfections. I have engaged in multiomics approaches including microRNA analysis, mRNA sequencing and metabolomics. This allowed me to gain crucial insights into disease mechanisms. I am member and co-leader of Working Group 5 of the COST Action “Bench to bedside transition for pharmacological regulation of NRF2 in noncommunicable diseases” BenBedPhar(CA-20121). In addition, I am member and ambassador in the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) and member of the Portuguese Cancer Research Association (ASPIC). I participated as Guest Editor in three special issues: Frontiers in Genetics, International Journal of Molecular Sciences and JoVE. I am also a reviewer for several international journals, including Cell Death and Disease, Cells, Antioxidants and Frontiers in Genetics. I have participated in science communication initiatives both within the research community, attending national and international conferences, where I presented my work both as oral communications (over 15) and posters (over 25). I have also engaged in various science outreach initiatives, being part of the book "Women in Science 2021" (Portugal), as well as participating in television and radio shows dedicated to science communication. I participated in science dissemination activities dedicated to schools and other lay audiences. I have been co-organizer of scientific events including the COST Action BenBedPhar 2023 Open day and the Second Annual Joint Postdoctoral Meeting Lisbon 2015. I have supervised 10 MSc students and currently I am supervising 4 MSc students and 4 PhD students. My role in teaching started in 2013, as an invited lecturer at Faculty of Sciences (University of Lisbon), first teaching Biomolecular Methods and later also Molecular and Cell Biology of Cancer. As a direct consequence of my participation in the second topic, I am the author of a book chapter (Springer International Publishing 2019). Since 2020, until my recent appointment as an Assistant Professor, I was lecturer at Ciências in Physiology (BSc level) and Genes and Molecules in Development and Seminars in Evolutionary Biology and Development (both at MSc level).


    Publicações selecionadas
    • Martins, S.G.,Zilhão, Z., Thorsteinsdóttir, S., Carlos, A.R. (2021) Linking oxidative stress and DNA damage to changes in the expression of ECM components. Front Genetics 12, 1279. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.673002.
    • Martins, R.*, Carlos, A.R.*, Braza, F.*, Thompson, J.A.*, Bastos-Amador, P.*, Ramos, S.* and Soares, M.P. (2019) Disease tolerance as an inherent component of immunity. Annu Rev Immunol. 37, 405-437. *These authors contributed equally to this work.
    • Weis, S.*, Carlos, A.R.*, Moita, M.R., Singh, S., Blankenhaus, B., Cardoso, S., Larsen, R., Rebelo, S., Schauble, S., Del Barrio, L., Mithieux, G., Rajas, F., Lindig, S., Bauer, M., and Soares, M. P. (2017). Metabolic Adaptation Establishes Disease Tolerance to Sepsis. Cell 169, 1263-1275 e1214. *These authors contributed equally to this work.
    • Badie, S.*, Carlos, A.R.*, Folio, C.*, Okamoto, K., Bouwman, P., Jonkers, J., and Tarsounas, M. (2015). BRCA1 and CtIP promote alternative non-homologous end-joining at uncapped telomeres. EMBO J 34, 410-424. * These authors contributed equally to this work.
    • Carlos, A.R.*, Escandell, J.M.*, Kotsantis, P., Suwaki, N., Bouwman, P., Badie, S., Folio, C., Benitez, J., Gomez-Lopez, G., Pisano, D.G., Jonkers, J., and Tarsounas, M. (2013). ARF triggers senescence in Brca2-deficient cells by altering the spectrum of p53 transcriptional targets. Nat Commun 4, 2697. * These authors contributed equally to this work.

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