Bio
I am from the Lisbon area, Portugal, and
received my MSc in Biological Engineering in
2016 from Instituto Superior Técnico. During
my Bachelor's, I got particularly interested
in the area of computational biology and, for
that reason, I chose to do my Master's thesis
work in Nuno Morais’ Lab. This work was focused on the genome-wide profiling of alternative splicing in human ageing and sparked in me a strong interest in the biology of ageing as well.
I aim to understand the changes at the level of the RNA molecules that characterize human ageing: both the changes that are common to several tissues in our body and the ones that are specific of each of them. However, not all people age in the same way: for some, the incidence of age-related diseases increases as they grow older, while others remain free of disease and are able to live longer. We can think of these as unhealthy and healthy ageing, respectively. The differences between these processes are also a focus of my project and may help identify interventions able to promote a healthier and longer life in humans.
Publications
Georgilis A, Klotz S, Hanley CJ, Herranz N, Weirich B, Morancho B, Leote AC, D'Artista L, Gallage S, Seehawer M, Carroll T, Dharmalingam G, Wee KB, Mellone M, Pombo J, Heide D, Guccione E, Arribas J, Barbosa-Morais NL, Heikenwalder M, Thomas GJ, Zender L, Gil J. "PTBP1-Mediated Alternative Splicing Regulates the Inflammatory Secretome and the Pro-tumorigenic Effects of Senescent Cells." Cancer Cell, 2018 Jul 9;34(1):85-102.e9. [PUBMED]
Gallego-Paez LM, Bordone MC, Leote AC, Saraiva-Agostinho N, Ascensao-Ferreira M, Barbosa-Morais NL. "Alternative splicing: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige - The key role of alternative splicing in human biological systems." Hum Genet., 2017 Sep;136(9):1015-1042. [PUBMED]