Carlos Penha-Gonçalves

Carlos Penha-Gonçalves is a senior researcher with over three decades of experience investigating the biological determinants of immunological, infectious, and metabolic diseases. He holds a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Lisbon (1984), a master’s in molecular biology from the Faculty of Science and Technology at NOVA University Lisbon (1992), and a PhD in Immunology from Umeå University, Sweden (1999). He also completed his Habilitation (Agregação) at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon (2007).

From 2000 to 2001, he was a visiting researcher at the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research in the UK. Between 2003 and 2024, he served as Principal Investigator at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, where he also led the Genomics Unit from 2002 to 2018.

He supervised eight post-doctoral researchers and nine PhD theses and more than two dozen MSc theses His research activity received support from multiple national and international funding agencies and was recognized with the 1st Pfizer award for clinical research in Portugal (2010), the Génese grant from Gilead (2019) and the Innovation grant from Ferring Pharmaceuticals (2020).

His scientific interests have centered on understanding the genetic basis of disease resistance and susceptibility. He has been involved in developing approaches to dissect genetic components of complex diseases. His research program aimed at systematically analyzing the involvement of specific genetic factors in the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie diseases such as malaria and diabetes, both in humans and in mouse models.

Highlights of his research include:

• Establish a mouse model to study malaria in pregnancy, a tool that has been used by many researchers to study the pathogenesis of this clinical form of malaria infection that afflicts many pregnant women in Africa.
• Reveal that liver macrophages populations have a dual role in the response to acute hepatic injury, promoting inflammation upon acute injury but promoting tissue regeneration during the recovery phase.
• Uncover that microparticles derived from erythrocytes infected with the malaria parasite deliver innate immunity stimuli to the brain microvasculature endothelium triggering a deadly clinical form of malaria known as cerebral malaria. This research is opening new options for cerebral malaria adjunctive therapies.

In addition to laboratory research, he has conducted field-based epidemiological studies, including malaria research in Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe, cohort studies of diabetes comorbidities in the Portuguese population, and more recently, evaluations of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in Portugal.

1. Pais TF, Ali H, Moreira da Silva J, Duarte N, Neres R, Chhatbar C, Acúrcio RC, Guedes RC, Strano Moraes MC, Costa-Silva B, Kalinke U, Penha-Gonçalves C. Brain endothelial STING1 activation by Plasmodium-sequestered heme promotes cerebral malaria via type I IFN response. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Sep 6;119(36):e2206327119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2206327119.
2. Faro-Viana J, Bergman ML, Gonçalves LA, Duarte N, Coutinho TP, Borges PC, Diwo C, Castro R, Matoso P, Malheiro V, Brennand A, Kosack L, Akpogheneta O, Figueira JM, Cardoso C, Casaca AM, Alves PM, Nunes T, Penha-Gonçalves C, Demengeot J. Population homogeneity for the antibody response to COVID-19 BNT162b2/Comirnaty vaccine is only reached after the second dose across all adult age ranges. Nat Commun. 2022 Jan 10;13(1):140. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27761-z
3. Coelho I, Duarte N, Macedo MP, Penha-Gonçalves C. Insights into Macrophage/Monocyte-Endothelial Cell Crosstalk in the Liver: A Role for Trem-2. J Clin Med. 2021 Mar 17;10(6). DOI: 10.3390/jcm10061248. Review
4. Gonçalves LA, Rodrigues-Duarte L, Rodo J, Vieira de Moraes L, Marques I, Penha-Gonçalves C. TREM2 governs Kupffer cell activation and explains belr1 genetic resistance to malaria liver stage infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Nov 26;110(48):19531-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1306873110. Epub 2013 Nov 11.
5. Neres R, Marinho CR, Gonçalves LA, Catarino MB, Penha-Gonçalves C. Pregnancy outcome and placenta pathology in Plasmodium berghei ANKA infected mice reproduce the pathogenesis of severe malaria in pregnant women. PLoS One. 2008 13;3(2):e1608. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001608