Catarina Morais

I was born in 1992 and I concluded a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2016 at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon. Until 2020, I worked as a community pharmacist. In 2017 I enrolled the PhD program in Biomedical Sciences – Specialization in Microbiology at Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT-NOVA). Since 2021, I have been carrying my PhD studies under the scope of a FCT doctoral grant (ref. UI/BD/151061/2021).

My main research interests included antimicrobial resistance, use of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine and staphylococcal infections.

The work that has been developed is part of my PhD Thesis in Biomedical Sciences entitled “Antimicrobial resistance in staphylococci causing skin and soft tissues infections”.

The collection studied includes isolates of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius collected from skin and soft tissues infections in companion animals. The main objectives are:

1. a) To evaluate antibiotic and biocides resistance profiles.
2. b) To identify the main clonal lineages in the studied region.
3. c) To evaluate genomic and transcriptomic alterations associated with the bacterial response to continues exposition to antimicrobials.

1. Leal, Marta; Morais, Catarina; Ramos, Bárbara; Pomba, Constança; Abrantes, Patrícia; Santos Costa, Sofia; Couto, Isabel. “O impacto do efluxo na suscetibilidade reduzida a biocidas e resistência a fluoroquinolonas em Staphylococcus pseudintermedius“. Anais do Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical 22 2 (2024): 87-92. https://anaisihmt.com/index.php/ihmt/article/view/460
2. Morais, Catarina; Santos Costa, Sofia; Leal, Marta; Ramos, Bárbara; Andrade, Mariana; Ferreira, Carolina; Abrantes, Patrícia; Pomba, Constança; Couto, Isabel. “Genetic diversity and antimicrobial resistance profiles of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius associated with skin and soft-tissue infections in companion animals in Lisbon, Portugal”. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2023; 14:1167834. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1167834
3. Leal, Marta; Morais, Catarina; Ramos, Bárbara; Pomba, Constança; Abrantes, Patrícia; Santos Costa, Sofia; Couto, Isabel. “Exploring efflux as a mechanism of reduced susceptibility towards biocides and fluoroquinolones in Staphylococcus pseudintermedius”. Animals. 2023; 13:1270. doi: 10.3390/ani13071270
4. Andrade, Mariana; Oliveira, Ketlyn; Morais, Catarina; Abrantes, Patrícia; Pomba, Constança; Rosato, Adriana; Couto, Isabel; Santos Costa, Sofia. “Biofilm-producing Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus coagulans causing skin infections in companion animals”. Antibiotics. 2022; 11:1339. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics11101339
5. Santos Costa, Sofia; Ferreira, Carolina; Ribeiro, Rute; Febler, Andrea T; Schink, Anne-Kathrin; Kadlec, Kristina; Kaspar, Heike; Amaro, Ana; Albuquerque, Teresa; Abrantes, Patrícia; Morais, Catarina; Pomba, Constança; Couto, Isabel. “Proposal of Epidemiological Cutoff Values for Apramycin 15 mg and Florfenicol 30 mg disks applicable to Staphylococcus aureus”. Microbial Drug Resistance. 2021. 27; 11:1555-1559. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/mdr.2020.0402