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First year PhD student from the Cyanobacterial Natural Products (CNP) team at CIIMAR (Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research). Experienced in: cyanobacterial natural products; cyanobacterial biosynthetic pathways; heterologous expression of cyanobacterial BGCs in E. coli; bioinformatic analysis of metagenomics data; genetic manipulation of cyanobacteria and E. coli; compound identification through LC-MS; compound isolation using a LC-MS approach; structural characterization through LC-MS and NMR; and maintenance of cyanobacterial cultures. Participated on the research “Discovery and Heterologous Expression of Microginins from Microcystis aeruginosa LEGE 91341” published in ACS Synthetic Biology. Presented the developed research during the bachelor’s and master’s internships in 4 national congresses – IJUP 2022 by the University of Porto (1 oral presentation and 1 poster presentation); and Blue Think Conference 2020, 2022 and 2023 by CIIMAR (3 poster presentations) – and 2 international congresses – Directing Biosynthesis VI by the Royal Society of Chemistry (1 poster presentation); and XIII European Congress on Marine Natural Products and XVII International Symposium on Marine Natural Products (1 poster presentation). Awarded a PhD Scholarship by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. Won the “Best Internship Award” from the Blue Young Talent plus program promoted by CIIMAR with the work developed during the master thesis. Volunteered on field and science outreach activities for the TREC expedition during its stop at CIIMAR. Participated in science dissemination activities, namely, Mostra UP and CIIMAR open day. Holds a BSc degree in Biochemistry by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP) and the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Porto (ICBAS), and a MSc degree in Applications in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology from FCUP. Currently, enrolled on the Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Program at ICBAS.
Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Diana Rafaela Reis de Sousa

Citation names

  • Sousa, Diana

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
0311-CF27-6193
ORCID iD
0009-0007-3850-9362

Email addresses

  • diana.rafaela.293@gmail.com (Professional)
  • dsousa@ciimar.up.pt (Professional)

Knowledge fields

  • Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Biochemistry
  • Natural sciences - Biological Sciences
  • Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Biology
  • Exact Sciences - Chemical Sciences

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English
Education
Degree Classification
2024/01 - 2028/02
Ongoing
Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences (Doutoramento)
Universidade do Porto Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Portugal
"Cryptic secondary metabolites from uncultured cyanobacteria" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2020/09 - 2022/12/09
Concluded
Applications in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology (Mestrado)
Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências, Portugal
"Culture Independent Discovery of New Cyanobacterial Natural Products" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
18
2017/09 - 2020/07
Concluded
Biochemistry (Licenciatura)
Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências, Portugal

Universidade do Porto Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Portugal
"Genetic and Chemical Diversity of a Novel Halogenase Class" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
15
Affiliation

Science

Category
Host institution
Employer
2024/02/01 - Current Research Trainee (Research) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
(...)
2022/08/01 - 2024/01/31 Researcher (Research) Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2021/09/01 - 2022/06/30 Research Trainee (Research) Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2019/09 - 2020/09 Research Trainee (Research) Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
Projects

Contract

Designation Funders
2022/08/01 - 2024/01/31 Investigation of a new class of beta-propeller enzymes
Master Student Fellow
Outputs

Publications

Conference poster
  1. Sousa, Diana; Leão, Pedro N.; Eusebio, Nadia. "Genetic and Chemical Diversity of a Novel Halogenase". Paper presented in Blue Think Conference: Share Science, Spread Knowledge, 2020.
  2. Eusebio, Nadia; Rego, Adriana; Sousa, Diana; Cassell, Samantha; Nakamura, Hitomi; Glasser, Nathaniel; Balskus, Emily; Leão, Pedro N.. "Diversity and distribution of dimetal-carboxylate halogenases in Cyanobacteria". Paper presented in 11th European Workshop on the Biology of Cyanobacteria, 2020.
Journal article
  1. Eusébio, Nádia; Castelo-Branco, Raquel; Sousa, Diana; Preto, Marco; D’Agostino, Paul; Gulder, Tobias A. M.; Leão, Pedro N.. "Discovery and Heterologous Expression of Microginins from Microcystis aeruginosa LEGE 91341". ACS Synthetic Biology 11 10 (2022): 3493-3503. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.2c00389.
    Published • 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00389
Activities

Event participation

Activity description
Type of event
Event name
Institution / Organization
2023/09/13 - 2023/09/13 Poster presentation at Blue Think Conference 2023, 13 of September 2023, Matosinhos, Portugal "Expanding the molecular tools for heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters and natural products discovery in Cyanobacteria" Diana Sousa, Paulo Oliveira, Eunice Ferreira, Konrad Viehrig and Pedro Leão
Congress
Blue Think Conference 2023
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2023/09/12 - 2023/09/12 International Conference in Marine Biotechnology - Conference lectured by experts in marine biotechnology, namely on the areas of: genome- and MS-guided discovery of novel secondary metabolites; bioinformatic analysis of the taxonomical and biosynthetic diversity of complex microbial communities; natural products chemical synthesis; and biorreactors optimization.
Conference
International Conference in Marine Biotechnology from the BlueBio for Future ERA chair project
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2023/09/03 - 2023/09/08 Poster Presentation at the XIII European Congress on Marine Natural Products and XVII International Symposium on Marine Natural Products, September 3-8 2023, Granada, Spain - "Heterologous expression of a cyanobacterial MAG-derived mvdBGC through DiPaC-SLIC" Diana Sousa, Adriana Rego, Raquel Castelo-Branco and Pedro Leão
Congress
XIII European Congress on Marine Natural Products and XVII International Symposium on Marine Natural Products
2023/07/04 - 2023/07/05 Meta_Microbial Workshop - Workshop on techniques for the analysis of complex microbial communities. The workshop covered sequencing techniques, targeted and untargeted metagenomic approaches and basic R statistics for the analysis of microbial communities.
Workshop
Meta_Microbial Workshop
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2023/05/29 - 2023/05/31 Short Course in Synthetic Biology - short course on cutting-edge synthetic biology techniques including high-throughput techniques for the discovery of new natural products, heterologous expression and green chemistry.
Workshop
Short Course in Synthetic Biology from the BlueBio for Future ERA chair
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2022/09/27 - 2022/09/27 Poster presentation at Blue Think Conference 2022, 27 of September 2022, Matosinhos, Portugal "Metagenome Derived Discovery of New Cyanobacterial Natural Products" Diana SOUSA, Adriana REGO, Catarina MAGALHÃES and Pedro N. LEÃO
Congress
Blue Think Conference 2022
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2022/09/18 - 2022/09/18 Participation in CIIMAR Open Day to promote the research investigation conducted under the scope of the Propeller project at CIIMAR to the general public
Other
CIIMAR Open Day
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal
2022/06/27 - 2022/06/29 Poster presentation at Directing Biosynthesis VI, 27 to 29 of June 2022, Edinburgh, United Kingdom - "Heterologous expression confirms that the cyanobacterial mic gene cluster is responsible for the biosynthesis of the protease inhibitors microginins" Diana SOUSA, Nádia EUSÉBIO, Raquel CASTELO-BRANCO, Marco PRETO, Paul D'AGOSTINO, Tobias M. GULDER, Pedro N. LEÃO
Congress
Directing Biosynthesis VI
2022/05/04 - 2022/05/06 Oral communication at IJUP 2022, 04 to 06 of May 2022, Porto, Portugal "Heterologous expression of the mic BGC from the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa LEGE 91341 in E. coli confirms its role in microginin production" Diana SOUSA, Nádia EUSÉBIO, Raquel CASTELO-BRANCO, Marco PRETO, Paul D'AGOSTINO, Tobias M. GULDER, Pedro N. LEÃO
Congress
IJUP 2022
Universidade do Porto, Portugal
2022/05/04 - 2022/05/06 Poster presentation at IJUP 2022, 04 to 06 of May 2022, Porto, Portugal "Culture-Independent Discovery of New Cyanobacterial Natural Products" Diana SOUSA, Adriana REGO, Catarina MAGALHÃES and Pedro N. LEÃO
Congress
IJUP 2022
Universidade do Porto, Portugal
2022/04/21 - 2022/04/24 Participation in Mostra UP 2022 to promote the research investigation conducted at CIIMAR to future university students
Other
Mostra UP 2022
Universidade do Porto, Portugal
2020/09/17 - 2020/09/17 Poster presentation at Blue Think Conference 2020, 17 of September 2020, Matosinhos, Portugal "Genetic and Chemical Diversity of a Novel Halogenase Class" Diana SOUSA, Pedro LEÃO and Nádia EUSÉBIO
Congress
Blue Think Conference 2020
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal

Association member

Society Organization name Role
2018 - 2024 Tuna Feminina de Ciências da Universidade do Porto
2019 - 2021 Student Body of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto Vogal of the Sports Department
Distinctions

Award

2022 Best Internship Award BYTplus 2021/2022
Universidade do Porto Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal

Other distinction

2023 PhD Studentship - 2023.01422.BD
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal