Bessa, C.

Biography

Cláudia Bessa (CB) obtained her degree in Biology in 2009, and completed the master in Molecular Genetics in 2012. Hereafter, she worked as research fellow within a project granted by FCT that envisaged functional, molecular and pharmacological studies of p53 proteins in cancer. In 2013, she got a PhD scholarship from FCT under the PhD program in Pharmaceutical Sciences - Faculty of Pharmacy-University of Porto. During her PhD, CB worked on the search for new pharmacological modulators of PKC isozymes with potential application on cancer therapy. Remarkably, she identified the first small-molecule PKCdelta-selective activator, showing its promising antitumor activity in colorectal cancer (CRC). This study was carried out in collaboration with M. Kazanietz (University of Pennsylvania, USA), which allowed her to acquire a deepen expertise in PKC pharmacology and PKC-regulated signaling pathways in cancer. Furthermore, she got training at other national institutions, including Faculty of Medicine-UP and CNC-Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology-UCoimbra. Meanwhile, she integrated the team of other FCT-funded projects working on the search for new therapeutic strategies to circumvent the impairment of p53 pathway in human cancers. Within PhD, CB published 7 original articles, 2 as first author (Cell Death Dis and IJMS) and 5 as co-author (e.g., Oncotarget) in peer-reviewed international journals in oncology, as well as 1 book chapter in co-authorship (Elsevier). Her findings had translated into a national patent and an international patent request. She was also awarded with an EMBO/FEBS fellowship to present her results regarding the identification of the PKCdelta-selective activator at the prestigious 'The FEBS EMBO 2014 Conference'. Moreover, she co-supervised an undergraduate student and 2 MSc students, participated in the scientific jury of a MSc thesis, and was invited to teach practical lessons of Microbiology at Faculty of Pharmacy-UP. Her research was presented in 8 oral communications and 4 posters at national and international meetings, including International Conference on Cancer Research and Targeted Therapy. After completing PhD, CB moved to the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge ¿ Lisbon, as Post-Doc at the Jordan¿s group (Oncobiology and Signaling Pathways Lab) under the scope of an FTC-funded project. There, she carried out a work aiming to study the inflammatory tumor microenvironment, and how it modulates the alternative splicing patterns in order to support the malignant progression of colon cancer. During the Post-Doc, she published an original article (Cancers), and an invited review (IJMS), in peer-reviewed international journals (both as first author). Finally, her work was presented at national and international meeting, such as 4th International Caparica Conference in SPLICING 2021 and Goodbye Flat Biology: Next Generation Cancer Models - EARC Conferences. Recently, she decided to develop a second Post-Doc in cancer immunology/glycobiology and joined the Pinho¿s Lab (Immunology, Cancer & Glycomedicine group) at i3S-UP. She is currently exploring the potential of aberrant CRC glycosylation as a novel immunotherapeutic strategy to CRC prevention. In parallel, she is developing an independent research line focused on the impact of glycans on CTC biology, immune recognition and metastatic competence, and co-supervising a PhD student. Overall, until now, CB has 17 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, with a total of 456 citations, with a h-index of 11 and an accumulated impact factor of 63,34.