Personal identification

Full name

Alexandre Castanho Barata Leitão

Citation names

• Leitão, Alexandre B.

Author identifiers

Ciência ID

2412-1F89-8641

ORCID iD

0000-0001-9004-1831

Telephones

Mobile phone

• 967420860 (Personal)

Addresses

• Rua Clemente Vicente, nº5, 1ºesq., 1495-716, Cruz Quebrada - Dafundo, Oeiras, Portugal (Personal)

Websites

• http://moitalab.org/lab-members/ (Professional)

Knowledge fields

• Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Cell Biology
• Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Evolutionary Biology
• Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Behavioural Sciences Biology

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening	Peer-review
English	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)

	Degree	Classification
2008/09/22 - 2014/09/04 Concluded	Biologia (Doutoramento) Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal "Hematopoiesis in the Drosophila larva: beyond the lymph gland" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2007/09/01 - 2009/07/31 Concluded	Biologia do desenvolvimento e evolução (Mestrado) Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal "Towards the characterization of plasmatocytes heterogeneity in Drosophila" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	18
2003/09/01 - 2007/07/31 Concluded	Biologia (Licenciatura) Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal	16

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2023/09/01 - Current	Postdoc (Research)	Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
	Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
2021/09/01 - 2023/08/31	Postdoc (Research)	Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
	Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
2015/05/01 - 2021/07/31	Postdoc (Research)	University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
	University of Cambridge Department of Genetics, United Kingdom

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2021/01/09 - 2023/08/31	The impact of genetic background in the activity of single neurons H2020-WF-03-2020: NeuroContext - 101038079 Post-doc Fellow Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal	European Commission Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Ongoing
2017/04/01 - 2021/03/31	Why does Drosophila vary in susceptibility to parasitoid wasps? NE/P00184X/1 Post-doc Fellow University of Cambridge Department of Genetics, United Kingdom	Natural Environment Research Council Ongoing
2016/05/01 - 2018/07/31	The genetic and physiological basis variation in cellular immune responses: parasitoid resistance in Drosophila melanogaster ALT1556 Post-doc Fellow	EMBO Press

Publications

Journal article

Zhou, Shuyu Olivia; Arunkumar, Ramesh; Irfan, Amina; Ding, Shuai Dominique; Leitão, Alexandre B.; Jiggins, Francis M.. "The evolution of constitutively active humoral immune defenses in Drosophila populations under high parasite pressure". PLOS Pathogens 20 1 (2024): e1011729. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1011729. Open access • 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011729 Leitão, Alexandre B.; Geldman, Emma M.; Jiggins, Francis M.. "Activation of immune defences against parasitoid wasps does not underlie the cost of infection". Frontiers in Immunology 14 (2023): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1275923. 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1275923 Arunkumar, Ramesh; Zhou, Shuyu Olivia; Day, Jonathan P.; Bakare, Sherifat; Pitton, Simone; Zhang, Yexin; Hsing, Chi-Yun; et al. "Natural selection has driven the recurrent loss of an immunity gene that protects Drosophila against a major natural parasite". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 33 (2023): http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211019120. Open access • Published • 10.1073/pnas.2211019120 Ding, Shuai Dominique; Leitão, Alexandre B.; Day, Jonathan P.; Arunkumar, Ramesh; Phillips, Morgan; Zhou, Shuyu Olivia; Jiggins, Francis M.. "Trans-regulatory changes underpin the evolution of the Drosophila immune response". PLOS Genetics 18 11 (2022): e1010453. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010453. 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010453 Leitão, Alexandre B; Arunkumar, Ramesh; Day, Jonathan P; Geldman, Emma M; Morin-Poulard, Ismaël; Crozatier, Michèle; Jiggins, Francis M. "Constitutive activation of cellular immunity underlies the evolution of resistance to infection in Drosophila". eLife 9 (2020): http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.59095. Open access • Published • 10.7554/elife.59095 Alexandre B Leitão; Xueni Bian; Jonathan P Day; Simone Pitton; Esref Demir; Francis M Jiggins. "Independent effects on cellular and humoral immune responses underlie genotype-by-genotype interactions between Drosophila and parasitoids.". (2019): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1008084. 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008084 John E McGonigle; Alexandre B Leitão; Sarah Ommeslag; Sophie Smith; Jonathan P Day; Francis M Jiggins. "Parallel and costly changes to cellular immunity underlie the evolution of parasitoid resistance in three Drosophila species.". (2017): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006683. 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006683 Santos-Matos, Gonçalo; Wybouw, Nicky; Martins, Nelson E; Zélé, Flore; Riga, Maria; Leitão, Alexandre B; Vontas, John; et al. "Tetranychus urticae mites do not mount an induced immune response against bacteria". (2017): https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8527506. Leitão, Alexandre B; Sucena, Élio. "Drosophila sessile hemocyte clusters are true hematopoietic tissues that regulate larval blood cell differentiation". (2015): http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.06166. 10.7554/elife.06166 Jennifer C Regan; Ana S Brandão; Alexandre B Leitão; Angela Raquel Mantas Dias; Elio Sucena; António Jacinto; Anna Zaidman-Rémy. "Steroid hormone signaling is essential to regulate innate immune cells and fight bacterial infection in Drosophila.". (2013): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003720. 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003720 Santos, M. E.; Athanasiadis, A.; Leitao, A. B.; Du Pasquier, L.; Sucena, E.. "Alternative splicing and gene duplication in the evolution of the FoxP gene subfamily". (2011): http://edoc.unibas.ch/46609/.