Diana Machado

Diana Machado is an Auxiliary Researcher at Unidade de Microbiologia Médica, Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IHMT/UNL).

She has a graduation in Biology (Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias de Lisboa), a Master in Medical Microbiology (UNL) and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, speciality Microbiology (IHMT/UNL).

The scientific activity developed extents across the field of medical microbiology being transversal to antimicrobial resistance, epidemiology, and laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases and aims to study the bacterial mechanisms underlying the emergence and evolution of drug resistance with epidemiological and clinical relevance aiming to use this information to develop medicines and technologies to combat bacterial infections.

She is author/co-author of 2 book chapters, >65 scientific papers in peer-review national and international journals in myco(bacteriology) on drug resistance, mechanism of action of drugs, molecular epidemiology, and diagnosis, and more than 150 communications in congress and other scientific meetings (oral and poster) (https://www.cienciavitae.pt/en/731A-290A-31FC).

She has participated in several R&D projects as a team member; supervised 3 PhD students, 10 MSc students, and 5 graduation students; co-supervised 4 PhD´s and 8 MSc students.

Has been participating in advanced training programs in mycobacteriology, and curricular units in NOVA’s MSc and PhD programs contributing with lectures, laboratory teaching and evaluation.

She is an Editorial Board Member of Journals BMC Infectious Diseases, Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials, Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance, and Frontiers in Microbiology. She is ad-doc reviewer for several scientific journals (publons.com/a/1176897/).

 

The primary research activities rely on the study drug resistance in active and latent tuberculosis, understanding drug resistance mechanisms, exploring new antituberculosis drugs and targets, and new mechanisms for “killing” M. tuberculosis. In addition, its research efforts are also focused on ways of combatting resistance mechanisms to existing drugs.

Current projects:

– Investigation on mechanisms of drug resistance in M. tuberculosis, with special interest on the resistance mechanisms mediated by efflux pumps, acquisition of mutations in drug targets and the interplay between the efflux and the mutations.

– Drug discovery: new drugs with new mechanisms of action against M. tuberculosis aiming to eliminate TB. Studies on antimycobacterial killing activity of drugs/efflux inhibitors against drug-susceptible, multidrug-resistant, and extensively drug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains: studies in vitro and ex vivo.

– Contribution of efflux pumps and oxidative stress to persister formation and survival.

– Mycobacterial susceptibility testing: study on drug resistance levels and its genetic basis; evaluation and standardization of new methods for M. tuberculosis and other mycobacteria.

– Evaluation of molecular systems for the detection of M. tuberculosis and screening of mutations that confer resistance to antituberculosis drugs.

– Resistance and virulence mechanisms of nontuberculous mycobacteria.

– Molecular identification of nontuberculous mycobacteria.

– Efflux inhibitors against viral infections (namely TB/HIV co-infection and TB/SARS‐CoV-2 co-infections, focusing on host-pathogen interaction and inhibition of cell energy).

She is also studying the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and virulence of the Gram-negative bacterial species Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli and Helicobacter pylori, efflux pumps and discovery of new drugs/efflux inhibitors to tackle drug resistance and dissemination in these important microorganisms.

She has been involved in:

– Laboratory diagnosis of TB and nontuberculous mycobacteria (since 2006).

– Multicenter studies (collaboration with e.g. Becton & Dickinson, Thermo Fisher, PlastLabor, EUCAST, ESGMYC, and TB Alliance, and pharmaceuticals like Janssen, Otsuka).

– TB nanodiagnostics (collaboration with the Nanotheranostics Group FCT/UNL).

 

Team: Miguel Viveiros (Full Professor), Jorge Ramos (Lab. Tech.), Jessica Antunes (PhD student), Nádia Correia (PhD student), Hermenegildo Chitumba (PhD student), Bruna Pereira (MSc Medical Microbiology student), Maria Almeida (MSc Medical Microbiology student), Filipa Vila Boa (MSc Medical Microbiology student).

 

1. Annelies Van Rie, Timothy Walker, Bouke de Jong, Praharshinie Rupasinghe, Emmanuel Rivière, Véronique Dartois, Lindsay Sonnenkalb, Diana Machado, Sébastien Gagneux, Philip Supply, Viola Dreyer, Stefan Niemann, Galo Goigh, Conor Meehan, ElisaTagliani, Daniela Maria Cirillo. 2022. Balancing access to BPaLM regimens and risk of resistance. Lancet Infect. Dis. 22:1411-1412.
2. Thomas Schön, Jim Werngren, Diana Machado, Emanuele Borroni, Maria Wijkander, Gerard Lina, Johan Mouton, Erika Matuschek, Gunnar Kahlmeter, Christian Giske, Miguel Santin, Daniela Maria Cirillo, Miguel Viveiros, Emmanuelle Cambau. 2021. Multicentre testing of the EUCAST broth microdilution reference method for MIC determination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by laboratories of the antimycobacterial susceptibility testing EUCAST subcommittee (AMST). Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 27: 288.e1-288.e4.
3. Diana Machado, Isabel Couto, Miguel Viveiros. 2018. Advances in the molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis: From probes to genomes. Infect. Genet. Evol. S1567-1348(18)30933-X.
4. Diana Machado, Miriam Girardini, Miguel Viveiros, Marco Pieroni. 2018. Challenging the drug-likeness dogma for new drug discovery in tuberculosis. Front. Microbiol. 9:1367.
5. Diana Machado, Isabel Couto, João Perdigão, Liliana Rodrigues, Isabel Portugal, Pedro V. Baptista, Bruno Veigas, Leonard Amaral, Miguel Viveiros. 2012. Contribution of efflux to the emergence of isoniazid and multidrug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PLoS One. 7, e34538.