Catarina Henriques
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Testimony
Telomeres and ageing have been a long-term research passion. Motivated by this, I embarked on a Molecular & Cellular Biology degree and graduated with a BSc (hons) at the University of Glasgow, Scotland in 2005.
Ageing and cancer can be seen as two-sides of the same coin and so I went on to pursue a PhD in immunology and cancer.
I was awarded a PhD individual Fellowship by the Portuguese Governmental Science Foundation to study Interleukin-7 receptor trafficking regulation and signaling with Dr. Joao Barata at the University of Lisbon, iMM, Portugal; in collaboration with Prof. Gerry Graham and Prof. Rob Nibbs at the University of Glasgow.
Following my PhD, I wanted to test the telomere hypothesis of ageing, in a vertebrate animal model that, like humans, depended on telomerase for health and lifespan. This motivated my post-doc, funded by a personal fellowship by the Portuguese Governmental Science Foundation.
I spearheaded the setting up of zebrafish as a model organism in Dr Miguel Godinho Ferreira’s lab at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science, and we were the first in the world to establish the telomerase mutant zebrafish as a new telomerase-dependent vertebrate ageing model.
In 2015 I was awarded a CIMA Research Fellowship at the Human Metabolism Department at Sheffield University, which was quickly followed by the award of a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellowship to start up my independent research group. I now hold a Welcome Trust Sir. Henry Dale Fellowship and have a lecturer-equivalent position at University.
My research at the University of Sheffield is bridging collaborations between immunity, stem cells and ageing in two key centers in Sheffield, HELSI and the Bateson center.
In summary, I am an in vivo biogerontologist, focused on understanding the fundamental mechanisms limiting tissue homeostasis and immunity in ageing and how these interplay to underlie age-associated degeneration and disease. I use the zebrafish as an in vivo model, and human donors’ tissue and cells ex vivo.
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