Catarina Marques
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Biosketch
I started my academic path by studying Microbiology at the University of Lisbon. During this time, I was fortunate to attend classes led by several IMM investigators, which peaked my interest in scientific research and in pursuing a career in academia. During my final year (2008-2009) I had the opportunity to do my lab placement at IMM, working on the malaria parasite in the lab of Prof. Maria Mota, under the supervision of Dr Miguel Prudêncio. It was during this year that I started to enjoy parasitology and decided to go down that route: I stayed another year to do my masters’ project (2009-2010), and decided to do a PhD in parasitology.
To that end, I moved to Glasgow where I specialised in molecular parasitology, trying to understand how DNA replication is initiated in the parasite that causes sleeping sickness disease (the Trypanosome) at the University of Glasgow in the lab of Prof. Richard McCulloch (2011-2015). Next, I moved to Dundee, where I continued to explore Trypanosome’s cell biology in the lab of Prof. David Horn at the University of Dundee (2016-2018), before I moved back to the University of Glasgow (2018-present) to further pursue lines of investigation I had started during my PhD, this time focusing on another parasite, Leishmania.
At present, I am a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Prof. Richard McCulloch, where I have recently started a project as researcher co-investigator to further dissect the DNA replication initiation machinery (which seems odd!) in both the Trypanosome and Leishmania parasites.
Testimony
My experience at iMM was one of the best I have had in my career, and was key for my development and academic success for years to come. The atmosphere I experienced in iMM was electrifying, and incredibly inspiring for such a young scientist as me. It was during that time that I was swayed from wanting to be a bacteriologist to becoming an expert in eukaryotic parasites instead – the odder the better -, and where I learnt most of the research culture and research conduct principles I follow to this day.
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