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Principal Investigator

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Paula Macedo

Medical Scientist

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João F. Raposo

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Marco Medeiros

Post-Doctoral Researchers

My interests lie in the field of metabolic diseases, in particular type 2 diabetes. With my research I aim to achieve medical remission of type 2 diabetes by identifying pharmacological targets for early intervention strategies. My current focus is gut neuroendocrine signalling. I use multilevel comprehensive approaches including: clinical observational studies involving human blood and surgical diabetic tissue samples; high-throughput data mining of metabolomic, proteomic, mRNA and microRNA profiles in human blood and tissue samples to identify potential pharmacological targets; validation of signal transduction networks in human cell lines, organoids and ex-vivo tissues using molecular methods and high-resolution microscopy of fixed and live samples; and validation of pharmacological targets in rodent models of diabetes.

Inês G. Mollet

I am currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Metabolic Diseases Research Group | CEDOC, NOVA Medical School and APDP – Education and Research Center, where I am actively researching in the field of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. On September 2009 I started as a Research Assistant at the Department of Physiology of the NOVA Medical School, New University of Lisbon. During the period of time as a research assistant our work focused on the study of the autonomous nervous system as a regulator of post-prandial glucose homeostasis. Work performed during this period allowed us to understand the importance of nitric oxide (NO) and glutathione (GSH) in whole-body homeostasis. Moving forward I was awarded a PhD fellowship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and continued researching the importance of NO, GSH and S-nitrosothiols on carbohydrate homeostasis. My PhD fellowship was a joint venture between the Metabolic Diseases Research Group (MEDIR), led by Professor Maria Paula Macedo, and Professor Young-Bum Kim’s lab at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, in Boston. For more than four years I was in Boston I have researched glucose and lipid homeostasis disturbances, leading to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes. Upon my return to Portugal I started as a post-doctoral fellow at the Metabolic Diseases Research Group | CEDOC, NOVA Medical School and APDP – Education and Research Center. We are currently addressing the importance of the ApoJ (apoliprotein J) /PON-1 (paraoxonase-1) axis as a mechanism-driven biomarker for NAFLD. Currently I am also interested on the study of intestinal permeability as a driver and promoter of chronic inflammatory diseases (CID) such as metabolic disorders, type 2 Diabetes and obesity. My research interests continue to be on the intricate and complex metabolic pathways of the liver and how these impact on disease onset and progression. I hope to be able to identify crucial key components of these pathways, thus being able to propose new diagnosis and therapeutic tools.

Inês Sousa-Lima

At the moment I am a Research Associate at the MEtabolic DIseases Research (MEDIR) group. As a graduate student at MIT with Dr. Guarente, one of the top scientists in the aging field, I deeply focused on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of aging at the genetic level. After that, I became interested in bridging my work on aging to stem cell research. I obtained a postdoctoral position at Stanford University, with Dr. Thomas Rando, investigating the age-related epigenetic changes in adult muscle stem cells. I moved back home to Portugal, where I joined the Outeiro’s Laboratory at the IMM (2008-2015). There I focused on a pressing goal to better comprehend aging-associated common diseases including Parkinson disease and type II diabetes. Since known genetic regulators of longevity are intrinsically linked to the regulation of late on set diseases, I substantially contributed to elucidate the role of Silent Information Regulator 2 - SIRT2, an important deacetylase in the aging process, in neurodegeneration and mitochondrial metabolism dysfunction. Here at the MEDIR, I am actively engaged in a variety of projects, bringing a more molecular and mechanistic approach to the on-going research due to my strong background in molecular biology and protein biochemistry. I am particularly interested in understanding how the hypothalamus, a key tissue recently identified as a control-center in mammalian aging, orchestrates with the liver and the gut the intricate on-set and progression of diabetes. Being diabetes a systemic disorder, in order to contribute to the big picture is paramount to study the organism as a complex network of communicating organs, thus I elected the exosomes as an unique mean of communication in this pathophysiological setting. For me, research is a game of discovery which gives me enough joy to keep going! In my free time I like to play with my two kids 

Rita Machado de Oliveira

I was conferred my LSc degree in Biochemistry in 2000, at Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. In 2001, became a PhD student of the PhD programme of Graduate Programme in Areas of Basic Applied Biology (GABBA), in Oporto University. In 2010, I was conferred a PhD degree in “Ciências da Vida, especialidade de Fisiologia”, at Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. My main objective, during my PhD was to implement a new insulin sensitivity test in humans in order to characterize the modulation of insulin action by hepatic parasympathetic nerves in pathologies like type 2 diabetes, obesity and arterial hypertension. I’m also performing different types of assays related with my postdoctoral project in the laboratory of the Portuguese Diabetes Association. Since 2004, I’m assistant professor at Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa in the nutrition and metabolism field. I have been working on the field of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism for the past years. Special attention is given to the field of metabolic disorders, specifically on the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the progression from prediabetes to diabetes. I have been involved in clinical research projects and developing project management skills. I have been working on the genetics approach of prediabetes, diabetes and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) having a series of genotyping technical skills.

Rita S. Patarrão

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Rogério T. Ribeiro

Researchers

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Ana Rita Andrade

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Margarida Coelho

PhD Students

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Ana Lucia Pina

As the brazilian soul of the lab I started my journey in science with a degree in Biomedicine (UNICRUZ). It was while working at Cruz Alta´s Heart Institute, with a great team and in a multidisciplinary environment that I started to be fascinated by complex disorders such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Some years later, during my Master in Health Science (UFCSPA), I worked with gene expression of adipokines in subcutaneous and visceral fat of morbidly obese people. This was when molecular biology came into my life, and I decided to start my Ph D in a more fundamental background, and also in a new country. After some homework, I found a great call for Latin American folks that took me all the way from Brazil to MEDIR lab in Portugal. I have been working at CEDOC since 2014, studying the importance of hepatic insulin clearance for glucose homeostasis. My Ph D project is mainly focused in bridging science from mouse to man on how insulin degrading enzyme is tied to the development of glucose intolerance, an important risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease development.

Diego O. Borges

I’m Inês and I am a PhD student at MEDIRlab. I started my studies in Biology some years ago and I was always very curious about different topics and environments. I was abroad for some time after my studies, decided to get more experience and training, both in academia and industry. I must confess that I always had special interest in the immunology field but when the time come to choose a PhD project, I had some classes with Prof. Paula Macedo and I got very enthusiastic about her project in mind. I joined the lab in 2016 and started working in this project about ”Exosomes as an intermediary of gut-liver communication in prediabetes”. At the same time I joined another lab, partner of ours, which mean that I have two supervisors, one expert in metabolic diseases, Prof. Paula, and other expert in extracellular vesicles, Prof. Bruno Costa-Silva. My work hypothesis is that an high-fat diet, commonly known as western diet, creates an inflammatory environment in the gut, affecting the content of exosomes, that will carry pro-inflammatory components to the liver and affect all of its vital functions. Exosomes are being produced by cells all the time and in every condition, not only in pathologic states. These are small extracellular vesicles that inside have genetic and proteic material, and that is why they have a very important functional role. Being gut one of the crucial tissues in our body, we have strong evidence to believe that is an impairment in its pathway with liver, responsible for regulate our metabolism, the answer for many of our questions about diabetes.

Inês Ferreira

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João Silva

I graduated in Biology in 2008, at Instituto Superior de Agronomia and finished my master’s degree in 2010, at Faculdade de Ciências. My research work was carried out in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. H. W. M. Steinbusch at Maastricht University and consisted in the development of a chronic stress model of depression in C57Bl/6 mice, using only ethological stressors. As my first time living and working abroad, I found it a fulfilling and rewarding experience, which gave me some of the most important tools for my personal and scientific growth. After this period, I had the opportunity to continue to work in neurosciences as a researcher under the supervision of Dr. Rui Costa, at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. My work aimed to understand the therapeutic effects of human umbilical cord matrix mesenchymal stem cells (umMSCs) in animal models of Parkinson and Huntington’s diseases. And it was then that I knew I wanted to pursue my PhD. Hence, in 2012 for a change in scenery, I started working at Prof. Paula Macedo’s lab, which focus in metabolism and another complex disorder, namely diabetes. I started my PhD in 2014 and my project focuses on the internalization and trafficking of the insulin receptor (InsR), in liver and skeletal muscle, through circular dorsal ruffle (CDRs)-mediated macropinocytosis. I aim to further explore the relevance of this pathway for the insulin receptor, both in physiological and pathophysiological conditions, such as hyperinsulinemia and inflammation.

Margarida Araújo-Correia

I was conferred my LSc degree in Biomedical Sciences in 2013 at the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal. In July of 2015 I was conferred a MSc degree in Biomedical Sciences also at the University of Beira Interior. During my master thesis I have studied the impact of antidiabetic drugs on testicular Sertoli cells, work that was developed at Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Portugal. I am currently a PhD student of the ProRegeM PhD Programme at CEDOC - Chronic Diseases Research Center, New University of Lisbon, Portugal where I am studying the impact of high fat and high fructose diets on NAFLD development. Particularly, we are addressing the role of the ApoJ /PON-1 axis as a mechanism-driven biomarker for NAFLD.

Maria João Meneses

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Teresa Ferreira

MSc Students

I am a Master student of Biomedical Research and my background is in Nuclear Medicine. I decided to choose this master because I wanted to get the necessary tools, knowledge and practice to implement it in Biomedical Research. I am interested in understanding the functional and metabolic evaluation of disorders, a consequence of my previous studies being focused in physiological diagnosis of diseases. It was also why I chose the Metabolic Disorders Lab to perform my thesis project. The other reason for that was because this is a translational research lab which will be the future basis of all research that aims to have a clinical application. The focus of the lab is Diabetes Mellitus and my project aims to relate Type-2 Diabetes and Insulin Resistance, with emphasis on the role to the exosomes, as inter-organ communicators and possible responsible for this Insulin Resistance.

Beatriz Guerreiro