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Group Members

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Principal Investigator

 

 

 

 

Nelson Saibo mail

Phone: +351 21 4469644

 

 

 

 

Post-Doctoral Researchers

 

  • André Cordeiro mail

André Cordeiro holds a PhD in molecular biology. He is interested in understand how plants perceive and integrate light signals to regulate development and consequent yield, under adverse environmental conditions. His main goal is to contribute for food security, by developing crops more tolerant to temperature oscillations. Currently, he is a contracted researcher at Plant Gene Regulation (PGR) under the supervision of Dr. Nelson Saibo, studying the cross talk between light and temperature in rice. The project aims to characterize and identify the molecular mechanisms by which Phytochrome-Interacting Factors (PIFs) regulate rice development and yield under different light and temperature conditions. In addition, he is developing a semi-automatic phenotyping imaging system that will be of major importance to study rice growth.

In addition, André has been highly involved in science dissemination among pairs and for the public in general. He is member of the ITQB/iBET Postdoc Association Executive Committee, aiming to promote interaction and knowledge transfer among ITQB/iBET postdocs, and in parallel he also helps in the organization of outreach activities to students of various levels of education and for the public in general.

 

  • Inês Chaves mail

Inês Chaves (PhD) is a Researcher Scientist. Her work is being dedicated to the study of development and stress response of plants.She is working in the genome of cork oak tree, plant development and in plant microorganism interactions. Her approach is mainly biochemical but since 2006 she focused her attention in the role of microRNAs as well as other non-coding small RNAs during these processes. She is also involved in the development of bioinformatic tools to be used in model and non-model species. She is studying the ability of plants to adapt and resist and she wants to unveil the molecular processes behind this. To her the thematics of data sharing and knowledge exchange has become more and more important and so she is working in the development of the National and European Bioinformatics Infrastructure envisioning the open data and science, ELIXIR and Biodata-PT. Moreover, she is collaborating in the development of controlled vocabulary (e.g. Crop Ontology) and standards (MIAPPE).

 

PhD Students

 

  • Luís Andrade mail

Luís Andrade is a Ph.D. student from the program "Plants for Life" under the supervision of Ph.D. Nelson Saibo (ITQB, Portugal), and Ph.D. Philip Wigge (IGZ, Germany). Luís holds a B.Sc. degree in biology from U. Porto (2013) and a M.Sc. in plant molecular biology, biotechnology, and bioentrepreneurship from U. Minho (2015). During his M.Sc. thesis, Luís tested potential flowering-time genes from cork oak (Quercus suber) using a heterologous species.

Currently, Luís is focused in understanding the molecular signaling network regulating photoperiodic-dependent flowering in cereals, using rice as a working model. He is particularly interested in the role of the Evening Complex in the translation of day-night length (photoperiod) into flowering activation. Luís is also studying the influence of temperature stress in diurnal transcription rhythms and plant's response mechanisms to extremely warm or cold events.

 

  • Pedro Carvalho mail

Pedro Carvalho is a Ph.D. student from the "Plants for Life" Ph.D. program under the supervision of Doctor Nelson Saibo (ITQB, Portugal) and co-supervised by Professor Jane Langdale (University of Oxford, UK). Pedro holds a B.Sc. degree in Biology (2013), a post-graduation in Biomedical Research (2014) and a M.Sc. in Biodiversity and Vegetal Biotechnology (2016) all awarded by the University of Coimbra. During the M.Sc. Pedro studied the ectomycorrhizal diversity in coastal maritime pine forests and the biotechnological approaches for in vitro ectomycorrhizal symbiosis formation with several shrubs and edible mushrooms, which got him its first two peer-review publications.

Currently, Pedro’s research is focused on understanding the transcriptional regulation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) promoter from the C4 species Setaria virdis when expressed in rice (Oryza sativa) (C3). The focus of the work is to identify rice transcription factors that regulate the C4 PEPC promoter and characterize their function in the transcriptional activity the C3 plant. The transcription factors identified are involved in the spatial and temporal regulation of the C4 promoter and may be interesting targets for understanding C4 specific expression patterns.

 

  • Fredilson Melo mail

Fredilson Melo is a Ph.D. student from the “Graduate Program Science for Development” Ph.D. program, under the supervision of Dr. Nelson Saibo and co-supervised by Dr. Margarida Oliveira and Dr. Tiago Lourenço. Fredilson holds a B.Sc. (2013) and M.Sc. (2016) in Biochemistry, from the NOVA University Lisbon. Between the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree, Fredilson undertook several temporary research positions at NOVA University Lisbon and Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. During his M.Sc., Fredilson studied the structure and bioactivity of secondary metabolites from the marine bacteria Salinispora Arenicola, with the intent discovering bioactive compounds for drug development.

Currently, Fredilson’s research is focused on understanding the role of ubiquitination in plant response to abiotic stress. To this end, he is characterizing the function of rice (Oryza sativa) RING-type E3-ubiquitin ligases in the response to drought and salinity stress, using transgenic rice plants (overexpressers and CRSIPR knockouts). Furthermore, he is looking at the underlying mechanism of ubiquitination-mediated stress response by looking for targets of the studied E3-ligases. Rice a staple food for about half of the world population, and source of a quarter of global per capita energy, especially in lower- and middle-income countries. The understanding of rice response to drought and salinity will provide us with important insights for the development of abiotic stress-resistant crops.

Outside of the lab, Fredilson produces the science communication web animation series “Podcast do Fredilson – Educação Ilustrada” and writes letters about science to primary school children under the “Cartas Com Ciência” initiative. Fredilson writes opinion pieces for Cape-verdean newspapers and illustrates at boroncete.com. 

 

  • Gonçalo Elias da Silva mail

Gonçalo Elias da Silva holds a B.Sc. in Genetics and Biotechnology from University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro where he also cooperated in a project developed by INIAV aiming for the characterization of genetic markers for high content of carotene in wheat grain. Afterwards, Gonçalo completed his master’s degree in Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Bioentrepreneurship in Plants, from the University of Minho. Gonçalo developed his research work at the IBMCP-CSIC in Valencia, Spain, where he characterized the genes in a portion of chromosome 4 from an introgression line between a commercial and a wild tomato variety (Solanum lycopersicum x S. pimpinellifolium) that presents distorted segregation in the progeny of the self-cross. After this, Gonçalo enrolled in the International Ph.D. program Plants for Life at ITQB-NOVA and is currently a 3rd year Ph.D. student.

Gonçalo’s current projects are centered on photosynthetic carbon-fixation and crop yield improvement, by attempting to modify the kinetic behavior of the enzyme RuBisCO in the model crop Nicotiana tabacum. Gonçalo is collaborating with the Organelle Biology and Biotechnology lab at the Max Plank Institute of Molecular Physiology (Potsdam-Golm, Germany) where he is applying organelle and nuclear transformation techniques, as well as synthetic biology approaches, to create a biotechnological platform for RuBisCO improvement.

 

  • Catarina Monteiro mail

Catarina Costa Monteiro completed her Bachelor's in Molecular and Cellular Biology, by NOVA University, in 2017, and her Master's in Biotechnology, by  Universidade of Lisbon, in 2019. Ever since, she developed interest in Plant Sciences, specifically in understand how plants integrate and regulate their developmental responses, to adapt to distinct environmental cues, with the ultimate goal of improving plants' tolerance and productivity.

Catarina is currently a PhD student at PGR lab, led by Dr. Nelson Saibo, at ITQB NOVA. She is working on the characterization of rice (Oryza sativa) PIFs transcription factors CRISPR mutants, while studying OsPIFs role in rice growth and development regulation in response to distinct light and temperature signals.

 

  • Célia Gomes mail

 

Master Student

 

  • Ivan Gonçalves mail

Ivan Gonçalves holds a B.Sc. degree in Biology from FCUL (2019), having later joined ITQB (NOVA) as a Master student in Biotechnology for Sustainability, developing an interest in molecular biology and genetics in plants.

Currently Ivan is working on his project at the PGR lab, under the supervision of Doctor Nelson Saibo and co-supervision of Pedro Carvalho, at ITQB. His work focuses on how the transcription factor OsFBH1 mediates the regulation of target genes by the circadian clock and its function on C4 photosynthesis.

 
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