Ana M Melo

Biography

Ana M Melo completed her PhD at IST (University of Lisbon, Portugal) in January 2014. Her PhD research was focused on the elucidation of the key factors that govern the formation of “amyloid-like” fibers of non-amyloidogenic proteins catalyzed by anionic lipid membranes. During her PhD, she implemented several microscopy techniques (FCS, FLIM-FRET and FRAP) at IST to characterize the dynamic/structure of these fibers. Her PhD work provided new insights into the membrane-induced surface aggregation of proteins, which resulted in 5 first author publications (BBA Biomembr, J. Phys. Chem. B, Soft Matter, Phys. Chem. Chem.Phys., and Methods Mol. Biol).

After finishing her PhD, AM Melo immediately moved to Yale University (USA) to join Rhoades Lab, a world leader group in the application of smFRET for studying function/dysfunction of several intrinsically disordered amyloidogenic proteins. Notably, she worked as a postdoc under the supervision of Prof. Elizabeth Rhoades at 2 prestigious American Ivy League Universities (Yale and UPenn) (Feb 2014–Sept 2017). At Yale, she also worked in an ambitious collaborative project with Prof. Scott Holley to apply FCCS (fluorescence cross correlation spectroscopy) in zebrafish embryos. In July 2015, she moved to UPenn with Prof. Rhoades. During this transition, she acquired experience in setting-up a new lab; specifically, in building home-made microscopes for smFRET measurements. In addition, she received a Postdoc Fellowship from the NSF Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (Jan–Sept 2017), which gave her more scientific independence. Her work at Rhoades Lab was primarily focused on exploring the conformational plasticity of tau protein bound to soluble tubulin using smFRET, and its role in tau function/dysfunction. Overall her research work in Rhoades Lab resulted in 3 high impact factor publications: (i) first author in a PNAS paper (recommended in F1000 Prime), (ii) first author in a chapter in Methods in Cell Biology, and finally (iii) co-author in a Dev. Cell paper from the collaboration with Holley Lab. She also mentored undergraduate students (at both Yale and UPenn) and 3 first-year PhD rotation students at UPenn. Her work attained international recognition with several selected an invited presentations (including US Biophysical Meetings (BPS), Iberian Biophysics Congress, and a Gordon Research Seminar of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins. She was also awarded with a CPOW Travel Grant from BPS that recognizes promising Young Women in Biophysics (for Postdoc and Young PIs) and was co-chair of 2016 IDPs Platform section at BPS Meeting (Los Angeles).

AM Melo returned to Portugal in Oct 2017 to pursue her scientific independence. Currently, AM Melo is a CEEC-individual researcher (Junior level). She is Head of the Bioimaging Facility at IST (member of PPBI and EuroBioimaging) and Invited Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Bioengineering at IST. The major goals of her team are: (i) the development of innovative single-molecule approaches to characterize the early-events of protein aggregation, and (ii) apply advanced fluorescence methods to study lipid membranes organization. AM Melo already obtained 3 Grants (2-ongoing) as Principal Investigator (PI) over the last 5-years (total ~ 318.2K Eur): 1. FCT Grant for huntingtin exon-1 (Huntington´s disease); 2. FCT Exploratory Grant for tau protein; 3. Maria de Sousa Award (by Bial Foundation/ PT Medical Association). She built the first smFRET microscope in Portugal. AM Melo is also Management Committee Member of the COST Action ML4NGP and co-leader of Working Group 4. She supervised 2 Postdocs and 8 Master Students (2-ongoing). Part of AM Melo work in Portugal has already been published: Front Mol Neurosci. (2020, corresponding author), Int. J. Mol. Sci. (2021, co-author), Langmuir (2021, co-corresponding author), Pharmaceutics (2022, co-author), Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods (2023, co-author), Int. J. Biol. Macromol (2024, co-author). She was also invited/selected for several Oral International Talks (e.g. Biophysics Meetings from US, Iberian and Brazil; and from International Society of Neurochemistry); and also at national presentations (e.g. invited 2021 PT Neuroscience Meeting).