Olga Matos

Olga Matos – Graduated with an MD degree from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), Lisboa, Portugal, in 1980. In 1982-83, she received scientific training as visiting researcher in the Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, after which she returned to complete her medical internship. In 1986-87, she volunteered as a physician at the Maputo Central Hospital and at the Dispensary of the United Nations in Maputo, Mozambique. In 1993, Dr. Matos obtained her Master’s Degree and in 2000, her Doctorate degree in Medical Parasitology, from UNL-IHMT, while serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Subsequently, she served as Assistant Professor from 2000 until she became Associate Professor in 2007, and continues to serve in that capacity until now. She obtained the Habilitation title in 2004 and in 2005, she was appointed Director of the Teaching and Research Unit of Opportunistic Protozoa and Other Protozoa at IHMT/UNL.

Dr. Matos has research interests in the fields of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine, and Molecular Biology. She authored 10 book chapters and 100 research articles in international and national peer reviewed journals in her specialty, one patent no. PT109078, more than 200 communications in international and national research meetings/congresses, and received 11 awards/grants.

She teaches in several post-graduate (Master and PhD) courses of her University, other Public Universities, and other institutions of University Education. In 2010, she was appointed by the Senate Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Timisoara, Romania as an Invited Associate Professor to the academic year 2010-2011.

Dr. Matos has participated as member of evaluation panels for Research Centers, Postdoc and PhD Fellowships and Projects of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space of Israel, German Aerospace Center DLR Project Management Agency, Austrian Science Fund, NHLS Research Trust-South Africa, Mérieux Research Grants-France, AERES-France, Infect-ERA JTC-EU, EDCTP-EU, FCT-Portugal. She holds editorial functions in the Editorial Board of three International Research Journals and has acted as peer-reviewer in more than 40 International and National Research Journals of the specialty.

Dr. Matos mentored/currently mentoring 4 post-doc grants, 7 PhD and 29 master students, 16 undergraduate students, and trained, supervised, and sponsored numerous trainee-ships in technical development and research. She was/is principal investigator/co-investigator in several national and international research projects, and integrated/integrates European networks for the study of intestinal parasitoses and pneumocystosis.

Dr. Matos has developed close collaboration with Portuguese, European, North American, Brazilian researchers, and with several Portuguese and African hospitals (Cape Verde, Angola, São Tome and Príncipe and Mozambique). Her working group, actually composed of one post-doc, one assistant researcher and three PhD students, has been developing research in the areas of molecular epidemiology of infections caused by Toxoplasma gondii, Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp., microsporidia and Pneumocystis spp., in humans and animals. The group has also developed research in detection and molecular characterization of waterborne Giardia, Cryptosporidium, microsporidia; drug resistance and susceptibility genes associated with pneumocistosis; In vitro and in vivo drug susceptibility studies in Pneumocystis and Toxoplasma infections; epidemiology of Chagas disease in Portugal, a non-endemic country; study on the recombinant antibodies and peptides used for immunotherapy and vaccination of cryptosporidiosis; development of new tools for diagnosis and molecular characterization of opportunistic, emergent and re-emergent infections.

Dr. Matos also offers Laboratory Community Services – specialized parasitological, seroimmunological and molecular diagnostic techniques in the areas of intestinal protozooses, American and African trypanosomiases, toxoplasmosis and pneumocystosis, requested by several hospitals in the greater Lisbon metropolitan area and by individual physicians.

1. Tomás, A. L., De Almeida, M. P., Cardoso, F., Pinto, M., Pereira, E., Franco, R., Matos, O. (2019). Development of a gold nanoparticle-based lateral-flow immunoassay for Pneumocystis pneumonia serological diagnosis at point-of-care. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10:2917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.02917
2. Alanio A., Gits-Mselli M., Guigue N., Desnos-Ollivier M., Calderon E., Cave D. D., Dupont D., Hamprecht A., Hauser P. M., Helweg-Larsen J., Kicia M., Lagrou K., Lengerova M., Matos O., Melchers W., Morio F., Nevez G., Totet A., White L. P., Bretagne S. (2017). Diversity of Pneumocystis jirovecii across Europe: a multicentre observational study. EBioMedicine, 22: 155-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2017.06.027
3. Tomás A.L., Cardoso F., Esteves F., Matos O. (2016). Serological diagnosis of pneumocystosis: production of a synthetic recombinant antigen for immunodetection of Pneumocystis jirovecii. Scientif Reports, 6, 36287. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36287
4. Lobo M. L., Augusto J., Antunes F., Ceita J., Xiao L., Codices V., Matos O. (2014). Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis, Enterocytozoon bieneusi and other intestinal parasites in young children in Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Principe. PLoS ONE, 9(5): e97708. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0097708
5. Matos O., Alves M., Xiao L. H., Cama V., Antunes F. (2004). Cryptosporidium felis and C. meleagridis in persons with HIV, Portugal. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10: 2256- 2257. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1012.031068