Dora Brites
Dora Brites was graduated in Pharmacy in 1976, received her PhD degree in Biochemistry in 1988 and habilitation in Biological Sciences in 2004 from the Universidade de Lisboa. She is presently Research Coordinator and Invited Full Professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Human Biology at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Universidade de Lisboa (FF.ULisboa), Portugal, and Head of Neuron Glia Biology in Health and Disease Group at the Research Institute for Medicines of FFULisboa. Her current research interests reside on neurodevelopmental alterations and age-related neurodegenerative disorders, namely Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), with a focus on neuroinflammatory signalling pathways and dysregulated neuronal-glia cross-talk, including the shedding, microRNA content and distribution of exosomes and ectosomes. The group uses conventional (two-dimensional, 2D) and improved (3D) technologies, fibroblast-astrocyte transdifferentiation, iPSCs-derived neural cells, and humanized transgenic animals, as physiological relevant models to study pathological mechanisms of AD and ALS and to assess drug response. Final goal is to identify targets and develop driven medicines. As a second area, she explores bilirubin and bile acid species as markers of Gilbert syndrome, Crigler-Najjar types I and II, as well as of liver dysfunction, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and progressive familial cirrhosis. Critical role of combined bilirubin and bile acid species in hepatocellular injury is under investigation in foetal and adult immortalized hepatocytes. Dora Brites has authored more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, was recently awarded with the Santa Casa prize in ALS and is part of the JPND Consortium for developing improved models for studying AD. Dora Brites was/is principal investigator of 18 funded projects. She has successfully supervised 10 Post-Doctoral researchers, 16 PhD students and 33 master thesis, and is currently supervising 1 Post-Doctoral researcher, 5 PhD students and 5 master thesis. Bibliometric indicators in Web of Science: h-index=35; Total number of citations=2,419; Researcher ID: M-8293-2013. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3024-9777. Scopus Author ID 7004026610; Webpage: http://imed.ulisboa.pt/research/program-areas/drug-discovery/neuron-glia-biology-in-health-and-disease/.
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