Maria Armanda Viana Rodrigues Pereira

Armanda Rodrigues is currently a post-doctoral researcher at IHMT NOVA and a member of the Vector Transmitted Diseases (VBD) group of the Research Center for Tropical Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM).

A. Rodrigues has completed her PhD in 2017 in Biomedical Sciences (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal). As a junior post-doctoral researcher, she has participated in several national and international research projects in different scientific, actively collaborating with national and international partners. She is the first author and co-author of various published scientific papers (Q1 and Q2 of the field) and has also participated in diverse national and international scientific meetings, divulging her most innovative results. Rodrigues A has lecturing experience on Real-time PCR, ELISA, Flow Cytometry, and Immunology to post-graduated, MSc and PhD students, and she has been providing scientific and technical guidance to several MSc and PhD students.

Overall, A. Rodrigues’s scientific research aims at the development of new strategies able to eliminate the burden of Neglected Diseases and Neglected zoonoses and promote a sustainable economy, enhance human and animal health and sponsor a progressive society, following UN2030 goals.

Currently, A. Rodrigues is a post-doctorate researcher at IHMT NOVA at UEI of Medical Parasitology in the Parasitic Immunology and Vaccine Development lab. She has been working on the project EXOTRYPANO (PTDC/CVT-CVT/28908/2017 -FCT) where she is conducting innovative research on extracellular vesicles shed by trypanosomatids of medical importance and assessing their interaction with host immune system.

She is the coordinator of the project miT3D EXPL/CVT-CVT/0175/2021 “Tackling trypanosomiasis cardiomyopathy with microRNAs and tridimensional (3D) cell models” (FCT), aiming to contribute to unravel host-parasite immune interactions using innovative cellular and molecular approaches.

Research topics: 3D cell models; Immunology and host-parasite interaction; Liver metabolism and local immunology; Trypanosomatids biology; Cell and molecular Biology; Biology of cancer.

1. Rodrigues, Armanda Viana; Valério-Bolas, Ana; Alexandre-Pires, Graça; Aires Pereira, Maria; Nunes, Telmo; Ligeiro, Dário; Pereira da Fonseca, Isabel; SantosGomes, Gabriela. “Zoonotic Visceral Leishmaniasis: New Insights on Innate Immune Response by Blood Macrophages and Liver Kupffer Cells to Leishmania infantum Parasites”. Biology 11 1 (2022): 100. http://dx.doi.org/10. 3390/biology11010100.
2. Serras, Ana S.; Rodrigues, Joana S.; Cipriano, Madalena; Rodrigues, Armanda V.; Oliveira, Nuno G.; Miranda, Joana P. “A Critical Perspective on 3D Liver Models for Drug Metabolism and Toxicology Studies”. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 9 (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.626805.
3. Rodrigues AV, Alexandre-Pires G, Valério-Bolas A, Santos-Mateus D, Rafael-Fernandes M, Pereira MA, Ligeiro D, Nunes T, Alves-Azevedo R, Santos M, Pereira da Fonseca I, Santos-Gomes G. (2020). 3D-Hepatocyte Culture Applied to Parasitology: Immune Activation of Canine Hepatic Spheroids Exposed to Leishmania infantum. 8, 628. http://10.3390/biomedicines8120628
4. Mendes C, Lopes-Coelho F, Ramos C, Martins F, Santos I, Rodrigues A, Silva F, André S, Serpa J. (2019). Unraveling FATP1, regulated by ER- β as a targeted breast cancer innovative therapy. Scientific Reports. Scientific Reports. 9:14107. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50531-3
5. Rodrigues A, Claro M, Alexandre-Pires G, Santos-Mateus D, Martins C, Valério-Bolas A, Rafael-Fernandes M, Pereira MA, Pereira da Fonseca I, Tomás AM, Santos-Gomes. G. (2017). Leishmania infantum antigens modulate memory cell subsets of liver resident T lymphocyte. Immunobiology. 222 (2) 409-422. doi: 10.1016/j.imbio.2016.08.009