Biosketch

I started my scientific career in September 2006 as an undergraduate student in Carlota Saldanha lab at iMM, where I performed my graduation thesis entitled “Modulation of erythrocyte deformability by PKC activity”. After this first encounter with research, I took some GAP years to develop my scientific skills and stayed at Sladanha’s lab as a FCT Research Fellow investigating the fibrinogen-erythrocyte interaction. My studies in this field showed how the integrin-associated protein (CD47) is a putative mediator for soluble fibrinogen interaction with human red blood cells membrane. In October 2009 I won a FCT PhD Scholarship with a project using the zebrafish model to study in vivo mechanisms involved in neutrophil recruitment. My graduate work in Portugal and Spain under the supervision of Dr. Angelo Calado (iMM-Lisbon,PT) ) and Victoriano Mulero (Univ.Murcia-Murcia, Spain), was highly productive with five first author publications in high impact journals, 4 more as a co-author and two “best-oral presentation” awards. Overall, my work helped the community to fully establish the zebrafish as a model to study neutrophils and unravel how early injury signals (ATP, Calcium and hydrogen peroxide) impact CXCL8/CXCR1-2 signal modulating neutrophil inflammatory response to injury.

After my PhD, I moved to the US and joined Anna Huttenlocher’s lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for my postdoctoral training. At Huttenlocher’s lab, I have started my own line of research that now I am continuing as an independent researcher in my lab. During my postdoc training, I won two highly prestigious postdoctoral fellowships, the EMBO long-term fellowship in 2015 and the CRI/FCF postdoctoral fellowship in 2016, to study the role of the innate immune system on NAFLD-associated HCC and FLC progression, respectively. Works that were published in the prestigious Journal of Hepatology and Disease Models and Mechanisms.

Throughout my career, I have been studying inflammation and using the zebrafish animal model to visualize acute and chronic inflammatory responses at a whole-animal scale by non-invasive live imaging in a vertebrate system. Now at Einstein, I am pursuing my passion for neutrophils and their role in disease. My lab particular interest is on how diet and aging impact neutrophil biology and affect their role in the inflammatory process under multiple contexts including injury, liver disease, and cancer.

Besides a passionate for neutrophils, as a woman and a first-generation college student from an economical disadvantageous background I am also a huge advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and put my energy and focus into activities and roles that hopefully will lead to significant advances in DEI both in science and academia. I am also committed to being a student advocate. After feeling completely burned-out by the end of my PhD and later as a mother and postdoc I am deeply devoted on promoting a healthy and balanced scientific environment for my students and trainees. In addition, effective mentorship practices in academia play a pivotal role in educating and retaining diverse talented young scientists, therefore I am working on the establishment of effective mentorship practices in my lab as well as at Einstein. My efforts in this area were recently recognized be the Dean Gordon Tomaselli which have nominated me has an Einstein Mentors Educator. I also serve as the chair of the Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center Women’s Task Force, and I am the Associate Director for Student Support for the Ph.D. Concentration In Clinical Investigation (PCI) program.

Testimony

My scientific training started in 2006 at iMM as an undergraduate student at Saldanha’s lab. It was here that I was exposed to multiple personal and professional experiences that modulated completely my way of living (and being in) science. Scientifically, it was at Saldanha’s lab under mentorship of Dr. Angelo Calado that I developed a deep interest for microscopy, inflammation and neutrophils, which led me to search for the most suitable tools and models to investigate in vivo such a complex process and understudied immune cell.

iMM’s diverse research interests and animal models was also crucial for my scientific journey. It was in 2007/2008 that I met the zebrafish model after being exposed to Drs. Leonor Saúde and Antonio Jacinto research, which opened their labs and allowed me to explore this model and learn key zebrafish techniques. The years to come and interaction with these two outstanding researchers and leaders in their fields was also pivotal in my growth, presenting me many challenges during the hours we spend on my advisory committee meetings discussing data, statistical analysis and the best experimental approaches, which forced me to push boundaries and become a better scientist.

Although I spent almost all my PhD time at Mulero’s lab at Universidad de Murcia, Spain, I was very fortunate to keep a close interaction with iMM and its rich community attending PhD Student Annual Retreat for example where I was exposed to extraordinary science thru the research projects of my colleague students. Finally, there was a major contribution in my personality and vision of science from my experience at iMM: Women can be scientific leaders! I can say that the environments I was “raised” as a scientist being able to see and learn by example from all the fabulous and accomplished women that surrounded me at iMM was a crucial part of my education that made me believe I had a place in science. This was particularly important when left iMM in October 2014 and moved to University of Wisconsin-Madison in USA for my postdoctoral training, there I faced a new reality where very few women were able to reach leadership positions, particularly Associate/Professor level and higher, and a white-man culture dominate science and academia.

Fortunately, my foundations were strong, and I succeed becoming the head of my laboratory at a world recognized research institution Albert Einstein College of Medicine working side by side with amazing scientists such as Ana Maria Cuervo, Richard Stanley, Robert Singer and William B. Jacobs. I am extremely grateful for all my experiences at iMM and how it shaped my scientific career.

Contact

LinkedIn