Researcher

Maria Teresa Tenório Figueiredo Carvalho Gonçalves holds a degree in Medicine (1988) from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL), where she has pursued an academic and scientific career since 1991. She earned her PhD in Medicine, specializing in Cell and Molecular Biology, in 2001. She is currently an Assistant Professor at FMUL, where she teaches Molecular Biology and Oncobiology in the Integrated Master’s in Medicine (MIM), and coordinates the Molecular and Cellular Biology course in the degree in Nutritional Sciences (LCN). She has extensive experience supervising laboratory internships for national and international students, as well as mentoring master’s and PhD candidates.
Her research began at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science and the Institute of Histology of FMUL, under the supervision of Professors David Ferreira and Carmo Fonseca. She was until the present date, a senior researcher in the MCFonseca group at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM), where she investigates mRNA biogenesis alterations involved in cardiovascular diseases. Her work also includes the development of iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte models to study inherited cardiomyopathies, such as Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and to explore novel therapeutic strategies. 
She is highly skilled in live-cell microscopy, FISH, immunofluorescence, confocal microscopy, and molecular biology and biochemistry techniques. Her research has led to high-impact publications, a patent, and has contributed to securing competitive funding from national and international agencies, including the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Leducq Foundation, British Heart Foundation, and “La Caixa” Foundation.

ORCID: 0000-0001-7061-8904
E-mail: t.carvalho@medicina.ulisboa.pt

Researcher

Sandra Martins had her first significant exposure to research during her degree at the University of Aveiro (1998), where she completed two laboratory internships in Animal Physiology and Neurosciences under Professors Maria Ana Santos and Paula Gonçalves. In 1999, she pursued a Master’s in Developmental Biology, conducting her thesis at the University of Oslo in Professor Philippe Collas’s lab, where she characterized a novel chromatin and nuclear matrix protein involved in nuclear envelope dynamics. This work continued into her PhD (2000–2003), during which she demonstrated the critical role of chromatin and nuclear envelope protein interactions in the initiation of DNA replication. Her findings led to high-impact publications and highlighted the significance of nuclear architecture in cellular function. In 2004, she returned to Portugal as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Maria do Carmo Fonseca’s lab at IMM-JLA (2004–2008), shifting her focus to mRNA biogenesis and the regulation of alternative splicing.
In 2009, she joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lisbon as an Auxiliary Professor while continuing her research as a staff scientist in MCFonseca’s lab. Over the past six years, she has focused on mis-splicing in familial cardiomyopathies, playing a key role in developing an iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte model for pathogenic variant validation and RNA-based therapies. She also led a study identifying common alternative splicing signatures in heart failure. Her recent work has resulted in impactful publications, a patent, and has supported the acquisition of competitive national and international funding (Novo Nordisk Foundation, Leducq Foundation, British Heart Foundation, “La Caixa” Foundation). Throughout her career, she has secured independent funding (PhD and PostDoc fellowships from FCT) and has been actively involved in teaching and mentoring, having supervised 12 MSc and 2 PhD students. She became a member of the CCUL in 2025.

ORCID: 0000-0002-7733-4485
E-mail: sandramartins@medicina.ulisboa.pt

Researcher

Ana graduated in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon (2002) and obtained her PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK (2008). With over 20 years of international research experience in chromatin, epigenetics, immunology and molecular medicine, her work has evolved from studying gene regulation by chromatin remodeling factors to investigating how the regulation of gene expression impacts innate immunity and disease. She has served as PI of the exploratory project “Role for histone eviction in the metabolic changes associated with sepsis” and has contributed to research across multiple disease contexts, including sepsis, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, sleep disorders, appendicitis, and cardiovascular surgery.
Ana Costa Neves has authored 27 publications, six as first author, with more than 1000 citations. She has organized an international symposium in immunometabolism and collaborated with leading groups such as the Genomics Group at EMBL (Heidelberg), the Structural Laboratory at Helmholtz Zentrum (Munich), and clinicians at Hospital de Santa Maria and Hospital da Luz (Lisbon). She is a member of the Portuguese Society of Immunology, regularly reviews for Frontiers in Immunology, and frequently presents her work at national and international meetings.
She has supervised and mentored graduate students, taught Immunology as an Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, and is currently Assistant Professor at Universidade Europeia, Lisbon. Since 2017, she has also served as an expert and rapporteur for the European Commission in the evaluation of Marie Skłodowska-Curie H2020-MSCA-IF proposals in Life Sciences, with over 40 projects reviewed.

ORCID: 0000-0001-6506-7829
E-mail: ananevescostaana@gmail.com

Research Assistant

Bárbara Madeira began her academic path with a Bachelor’s degree in Forensic and Criminal Sciences before completing a Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Biomedicine at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, where her thesis focused on immunometabolism in dendritic cells. She has gained international research experience in immunology, biochemistry, and molecular biology through work at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (Portugal) and the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene at JGU Mainz, Germany.
She is currently a Research Assistant at the Cardiovascular Center of the University of Lisbon, where she contributes to translational research in cardiovascular diseases. Her work includes processing blood samples, isolating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and immunophenotyping these cells using multicolor flow cytometry. With solid skills in laboratory research, data analysis and organization, Bárbara is passionate about advancing biomedical science in multidisciplinary environments.

ORCID: 0009-0009-3678-3274
E-mail: barbaramadeira9@gmail.com