Sofia Santos Costa

Sofia Santos Costa is currently an Assistant Researcher at the Unit of Medical Microbiology of IHMT-NOVA and member of “THOP – TB, HIV and opportunistic diseases and pathogens” group of the Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM) R&D center and of the Associated Laboratory “REAL – Associated Laboratory in Translation and Innovation Towards Global Health”, working on antimicrobial resistance and virulence in bacteria.

She obtained her PhD in Biomedical Sciences, specialization Microbiology in 2013. She holds a MSc degree in Medical Microbiology and Graduation in Applied Chemistry, specialization Biotechnology.

She is currently the PI of the R&D Exploratory Project “DREBI – Exploring efflux inhibition to counteract antimicrobial resistance and biofilms in staphylococci”, funded by FCT. She participates/participated in several R&D and Mobility Projects as Co-PI (BIOSAFE – Preventing antimicrobial resistance in the community – the safe use of biocides, funded by FEDER/FCT), or as team member (RespiraCV, funded by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian/LaCaixa; Portugal-Germany Mobility Project, funded by FCT/DAAD).

She is involved in several syllabus of MSc and PhD courses covering topics that overlap with her research areas. She co-supervises two Post-Docs researchers in the scope of international mobility programs. She supervises PhD students [2 + 5 co-supervisions] and MSc Students [3 + 6 co-supervisions]. So far, she has co-supervised one PhD student, supervised twenty-two MSc students (fifteen as co-supervisor), one BSc student and one Erasmus student.

She is a member of the Scientific Council of IHMT-NOVA since July 2020.

To date, she has authored/co-authored 39 international peer-reviewed publications (h-index of 18).

 

Sofia Santos Costa’s research interests focus on several aspects of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a OneHealth context:

• Epidemiology and mechanisms of AMR in staphylococci and other bacteria in humans, animals and the environment;
• Contribution of efflux systems and biofilms to AMR;
• Evaluation of compounds as efflux inhibitors, antimicrobials and/or antibiofilm agents;
• Drug repurposing as a tool for drug discovery;
• Galleria mellonella infection model to study virulence potential and drug efficacy – Platform Galleria mellonella Research Hub.

Ongoing Projects:

As PI:

• DREBI – Exploring efflux inhibition to counteract antimicrobial resistance and biofilms in staphylococci (FCT).

As a team member:

• Clarifying the role of efflux and mobilome on antimicrobial resistance and virulence in staphylococci (FCT/DAAD mobility project)
• Respira-CV – Airway colonization and microbiome in relation to asthma and atopy in children from Cabo Verde (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian/Fundação La caixa).

Concluded Projects:

As Co-PI:

• BIOSAFE – Preventing antimicrobial resistance in the community – the safe use of biocides (FEDER/FCT).

As a team member:

• DrugsForNg – Study of the activity of repurposed drugs against Neisseria gonorrhoeae: targeting membrane transport and energy metabolism (GHTM Exploratory Project).
• Companion Animals Veterinary Healthcare: any leading role in the spreading of Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae? (CIISA/FMV Exploratory Project).
• Type-II NADH-menaquinone oxidoreductase (NDH-2) and the respiratory chain of M. tuberculosis: new therapeutic targets to fight tuberculosis (FCT).
• Helper compounds against multidrug resistant bacteria: revealing their mechanism of action (FCT).

1. Garrine M, Andrade M, Neves J, Mandomando I, Couto I, Costa SS. Exploring the virulence potential of Staphylococcus aureus CC121 and CC152 lineages related to paediatric community-acquired bacteraemia in Manhiça, Mozambique. Scientific Reports. 2024;14:10758. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-61345-3
2. Ferreira C, Abrantes P, Costa SS, Viveiros M, Couto I. Occurrence and variability of the efflux pump gene norA across the Staphylococcus genus. International Journal Molecular Sciences. 2022;23:15306. doi: 10.3390/ijms232315306
3. Andrade M, Oliveira K, Morais C, Abrantes P, Pomba C, Rosato AE, Couto I, Costa SS. Virulence potential of biofilm-producing Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus coagulans causing skin infections in companion animals. Antibiotics. 2022; 11:1339. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics11101339
4. Costa SS, Oliveira V, Serrano M, Pomba C, Couto I. Phenotypic and molecular traits of Staphylococcus coagulans associated with canine skin infections in Portugal. Antibiotics. 2021, 10(5), 518. http://Doi: 10.3390/antibiotics10050518
5. Costa SS, Sobkowiak B, Parreira R, Edgeworth JD, Viveiros M, Clark TG, Couto I. Genetic diversity of norA, coding for a main efflux pump of Staphylococcus aureus. Frontiers in Genetics. 2019; 9: 710. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2018.00710