Date: 16 July 2025
Time: 11:00-13:00
Location: ZOOM & Sala Cambournac | IHMT-NOVA
Cerebral malaria (CM), a severe neurological complication of Plasmodium falciparum infection, is driven by brain swelling and vascular dysfunction. A central pathological event is the overactivation of brain endothelial cells, leading to the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. Although these endothelial cells are the first to encounter infected erythrocytes, their innate immune sensing role during CM has remained largely unexplored.
Our research highlights the brain endothelium as an active immune sensor through the stimulator of interferon genes (STING1) pathway. Using the mouse model, we demonstrate that STING1 mediates a type I interferon (IFN) response upon recognition of extracellular particles released from Plasmodium-infected erythrocytes. These particles serve as a potent source of innate immune stimuli, promoting CXCL10-driven leukocyte recruitment, neuroinflammation, and subsequent tissue injury.
Our investigation of the interaction between parasite-derived extracellular particles and endothelial immune activation provides a new perspective on the mechanisms driving CM. We aim to translate these findings into the human context, focusing on the brain endothelium as a therapeutic target. Our goal is to develop adjunctive therapies that modulate endothelial type I IFN responses, preserve blood-brain barrier integrity, and reduce neurological sequelae in survivors of CM.
About Teresa Pais
Teresa Faria Pais is a biomedical researcher with over 20 years of experience in immunology, with a particular focus on brain inflammation and innate immune responses to infection, especially Plasmodium in the context of cerebral malaria (CM). She holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Porto and is currently an Assistant Researcher at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM), supported by the CEEC program of Portugal’s Science and Technology Foundation (FCT). She has recently joined the VBD research group at GHTM and the Medical Parasitology Unit at IHMT NOVA.
She contributed extensively to academic teaching, as an Invited Professor of Immunology at the University of Lisbon from 2020 to 2024, and as Chair of Immunology for the Master in Clinical Analysis program at Escola Egas Moniz in 2023.
Through her work using experimental models of CM, Teresa Faria Pais has significantly advanced the understanding of how type I interferon (IFN) signaling in brain endothelial cells drives disease pathogenesis. This research has been recognized with the Best Immunology Paper Award by the Portuguese Society of Immunology in 2023.
Currently, she leads FCT and InnOValley-funded projects that aim to develop innovative strategies to modulate brain inflammation in infectious diseases, with a strong translational focus on improving neurological outcomes in children affected by CM.
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