Rebekah Cavaco Koppenol (3411-D6AA-DA14)

Curriculum Vitae

Rebekah Cavaco Koppenol

Rebekah Koppenol is a 4th year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Algarve. Her Ph.D. project focuses on using CRISPR-based molecular tools to develop new therapeutic strategies for Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2), a rare neurodegenerative disease. Rebekah is highly specialized in stem cell research. Throughout her doctoral studies, she has successfully established innovative induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models for SCA2, which have served as valuable tools for elucidating disease mechanisms and testing potential therapeutic interventions. Her proficiency in stem cell culture techniques, differentiation protocols, and molecular characterization of iPSC-derived cell lines has enabled her to make significant contributions to the field of neuroscience. Additionally, Rebekah has expertise in the development and characterization of transgenic mouse models, particularly in SCA2 research, ensuring their accuracy and reliability measured by several behavioral and neuropathological assessments. Academically, Rebekah completed her master's degree in Neuroscience in 2019 from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon and her former degree in Biomedical Sciences in 2016 from the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Algarve. Rebekah has also a post-graduation in Entrepreneurship from ITQB and NOVA School of Business and Economics and is co-owner of an international patent (PCT/IB2022/054493). For the past 5 years, Rebekah has enrolled in two main scientific projects, one as a doctoral fellow to develop her Ph.D. project and the other as a research fellow, in which she studied the role of G3BP1 in Polyglutamine diseases, work published in 2022 on Brain journal. In total, she is the author/co-author of 6 articles in specialized peer-reviewed journals and presented her work nationally and internationally in 16 congresses and meetings, namely, as the first author in 6 oral communications and 6 poster presentations. In the aforementioned, she won 2 best oral presentations. Academically, Rebekah co-supervised 4 undergraduate students and was an assistant professor in lab practical lessons of gene and cellular therapy classes in 2019 and 2020. In her professional activities, she participated in 6 pitch competitions of project acceleration programs, being a finalist in 5/6, and winning 1. Rebekah was also awarded 3 distinctions, namely her Ph.D. fellowship from FCT, a StartUp Research scholarship from Oeiras City Council, and an International Advanced Course scholarship from the European Society for Neurochemistry. She is a member of national and international scientific societies, respectively Sociedade Portuguesa de Neurociências since 2018 and the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy since 2021.

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Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Rebekah Cavaco Koppenol

Citation names

Koppenol, Rebekah

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 3411-D6AA-DA14
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1892-8670

Knowledge fields

Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Neurosciences
Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Cell Biology
Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Molecular Biology
Medical and Health Sciences - Medical Biotechnology - Gene-based Diagnostics and Therapeutic Interventions

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening
Portuguese	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)
English	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)	Advanced (C1)
Spanish; Castilian	Beginner (A1)	Intermediate (B1)	Intermediate (B1)	Intermediate (B1)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2019/12/01 - 2023/11/30 Ongoing	Ciências Biomédicas (Doutoramento) Major in Terapia Génica e Celular Universidade do Algarve - Campus de Gambelas, Portugal "Targeting the ATXN2 gene with the CRISPR-Cas9 system as a therapeutic strategy for spinocerebellar ataxia type 2" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2021/09/19 - 2021/09/26 Concluded	From Neurodegeneration to neuro carcinogenesis: Mechanisms and common Biologies (Outros) Major in Advanced School Idryma Iatrobiologikon Ereunon tes Akademias Athenon, Greece
2021/05/24 - 2021/05/28 Concluded	The CRISPR Revolution: a workshop on gene editing, from cells to animal models (Outros) Major in Workshop Universidade do Algarve Centro de Investigação em Biomedicina, Portugal
2021/02/05 - 2021/05/14 Concluded	StartUp Research (Pós-Graduação) Universidade Nova de Lisboa Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Portugal Universidade Nova de Lisboa Nova School of Business and Economics, Portugal	8 ECTS
2016/08/23 - 2019/02/19 Concluded	Neurociências (Mestrado) Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Medicina, Portugal "On the role of stress granules in autophagy" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	17
2013 - 2016 Concluded	Ciências Biomédicas (Licenciatura) Universidade do Algarve, Portugal "Development of a cellular model for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	15

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2024/02 - Current	Researcher (Research)	Universidade do Algarve Algarve Biomedical Center, Portugal
	Algarve Biomedical Center Research Institute, Portugal
2019/05/12 - 2019/11/12	Researcher (Research)	Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
	Universidade do Algarve Centro de Investigação em Biomedicina, Portugal
2017/09 - 2018/11/01	Researcher (Research)	Universidade do Algarve Centro de Investigação em Biomedicina, Portugal
	Universidade do Algarve Centro de Investigação em Biomedicina, Portugal
2016/03 - 2016/06	Research Trainee (Research)	Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
	Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular, Portugal

Others

	Category Host institution	Employer
2019/12/01 - Current	PhD Student	Universidade do Algarve Departamento de Ciências Biomédicas e Medicina, Portugal
	Universidade do Algarve Centro de Investigação em Biomedicina, Portugal (...)
2017/09/08 - 2019/02	MSc Student	Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Medicina, Portugal
	Universidade do Algarve Centro de Investigação em Biomedicina, Portugal

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2019/12/01 - Current	Targeting the ATXN2 gene with the CRISPR-Cas9 system as a therapeutic strategy for spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 SFRH/BD/148533/2019 PhD Student Fellow Universidade do Algarve - Campus de Gambelas, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing
2019/05/13 - 2019/11/12	Overexpression of the RNA-binding protein Gxxxx as a therapeutic strategy to Machado-Joseph disease and other Polyglutamine diseases 22424 Research Fellow Universidade do Algarve, Portugal	Ongoing

Outputs

Publications

Conference poster	Koppenol, Rebekah; Afonso-Reis, Ricardo; Pereira de Almeida, Luís; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. "Tackling spinocerebellar ataxia type 2: targeting the ATXN2 gene with CRISPR-Cas-based silencing strategies". Paper presented in Fens Regional Meeting, 2023. Koppenol, Rebekah; Afonso-Reis, Ricardo; Pereira de Almeida, Luis Fernando Morgado; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. "Development of CRISPR-Cas-based strategies for spinocerebellar ataxia type 2". Paper presented in ESGCT 29th congress, 2022. "Generation of a novel transgenic mouse model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 expressing mutant ATXN2 in cerebellar Purkinge cells.". Paper presented in XVII Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, 2021. "G3BP1 expression mitigates pathological phenotype in mouse models of different polyglutamine diseases". Paper presented in XVII Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, 2021. "G3BP1 as a therapeutic target for spinocerebellar ataxias: mitigation of pathological traits in different mouse models". Paper presented in 4as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Centre, 2021. Koppenol, Rebekah; Conceição, André; Afonso, Inês T.; Rajado, Ana Teresa; Matos, Carlos A; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. "Generation of a novel transgenic mouse model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 expressing mutant ATXN2 in cerebellar Purkinge cells". Paper presented in XVII Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, 2021. Conceição, André; Koppenol, Rebekah; Tomé, Sandra; Carmo-Silva, Sara; Ferreira, Marco; Teixeira, Diogo; Matos, Carlos A; de Almeida, Luís Pereira; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. "An RNA-binding protein alleviates pathology in two different mouse models of polyglutamine diseases". Paper presented in 24th meeting of the Portuguese Society of Human Genetics, 2020. Afonso-Reis, Ricardo; Koppenol, Rebekah; Matos, Carlos A; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. "Silencing ATXN2 expression using CRISPR/Cas9". Paper presented in 24th meeting of the Portuguese Society of Human Genetics, 2020. Marcelo, Adriana; Koppenol, Rebekah; Matos, Carlos A; Pereira de Almeida, Luis ; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. "Striatal neuropathology in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2: a new lentiviral mouse model". Paper presented in FENS 2020 Virtual Forum, 2020. Marcelo, Adriana; Koppenol, Rebekah; Matos, Carlos A; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. "A lentiviral genetic mouse model for Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2". Paper presented in International Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Genetics, 2020. Marcelo, Adriana; Tomé, Sandra; Carmo-Silva, Sara; Ferreira, Marco; Teixeira, Diogo; Matos, Carlos A; Koppenol, Rebekah; Pereira de Almeida, Luis Fernando Morgado; Nóbrega, Clévio. "RNA-binding proteins: new molecular targets for Polyglutamine diseases?". Paper presented in XVI Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Neurosciences, 2019. Koppenol, Rebekah; Marcelo, Adriana; Matos, Carlos A; Carmo-Silva, Sara; Pereira de Almeida, Luis Fernando Morgado; Nóbrega, Clévio. "On the role of stress granules in autophagy". Paper presented in XVI Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Neurosciences, 2019. Ferreira, Benedita; Koppenol, Rebekah; Nóbrega, Clévio. "Estudo do papel de uma proteína de ligação ao RNA na expressão de lamina e progerina". Paper presented in 5th MEEting of UAlg medicine Students, 2019. 10.17648/ppgcf-2017-66440 Garrido, Daniel; Koppenol, Rebekah; Nóbrega, Clévio. "Estudo do papel da autofagia na dispersão dos grânulos de stress". Paper presented in 4th MEEting of UAlg Medicine Students, 2018.
Journal article	Conceição, André; Koppenol, Rebekah; Nóbrega, Clévio. "On the role of RNA binding proteins in polyglutamine diseases: from pathogenesis to therapeutics". Neural Regeneration Research 18 12 (2023): 2695-2696. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1673-5374.373711. 10.4103/1673-5374.373711 Koppenol, Rebekah; Conceição, André; Afonso, Inês T; Afonso-Reis, Ricardo; Costa, Rafael G; Tomé, Sandra; Teixeira, Diogo; et al. "The stress granule protein G3BP1 alleviates spinocerebellar ataxia-associated deficits". Brain 146 6 (2022): 2346-2363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac473. 10.1093/brain/awac473 Marcelo, Adriana; Koppenol, Rebekah; de Almeida, Luís Pereira; Matos, Carlos A.; Nóbrega, Clévio. "Stress granules, RNA-binding proteins and polyglutamine diseases: too much aggregation?". Cell Death & Disease 12 6 (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41419-021-03873-8. Published • 10.1038/s41419-021-03873-8 Nóbrega, Clévio; Conceição, André; Costa, Rafael G.; Koppenol, Rebekah; Sequeira, Raquel L.; Nunes, Ricardo; Carmo-Silva, Sara; et al. "The cholesterol 24-hydroxylase activates autophagy and decreases mutant huntingtin build-up in a neuroblastoma culture model of Huntington’s disease". BMC Research Notes 13 1 (2020): http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13104-020-05053-x. 10.1186/s13104-020-05053-x Marcelo, Adriana; Brito, Filipa; Carmo-Silva, Sara; Matos, Carlos A; Alves-Cruzeiro, João; Vasconcelos-Ferreira, Ana; Koppenol, Rebekah; et al. "Cordycepin activates autophagy through AMPK phosphorylation to reduce abnormalities in Machado–Joseph disease models". Human Molecular Genetics 28 1 (2019): 51-63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddy328. 10.1093/hmg/ddy328 Nunes, Catarina; Mestre, Isa; Marcelo, Adriana; Koppenol, Rebekah; Matos, Carlos A; Nóbrega, Clévio. "MSGP: the first database of the protein components of the mammalian stress granules". Database 2019 (2019): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/database/baz031. 10.1093/database/baz031
Thesis / Dissertation	Koppenol, Rebekah. "On the role of stress granules in autophagy". Master, Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Medicina, 2019.

Intellectual property

Patent	Koppenol, Rebekah; Marcelo, Adriana; Conceição, André; Nóbrega, Clévio David Rodrigues. 2022. "Isolated or artificial nucleotides for use in neurodegenerative diseases". United States. Granted/Issued
Provisional application for patent	2021. "EXPRESSION VECTOR FOR GTPASE-ACTIVATING PROTEIN-BINDING PROTEIN 1 (G3BP1) IN THERAPY OF POLYGLUTAMINE REPEAT DISEASES.". Protected

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2023	Characterization of a new transgenic mouse model for spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 with 129 glutamine repeats: unraveling neuropathologic and motor phenotype	1st FloripaNeuro meeting (florianopolis, Brazil)
2022/02/10	ATXN2 silencing through CRISPR-Cas-based strategies: a therapeutic approach for spinocerebellar ataxia type 2?	52ª Reunião da Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia (Porto, Portugal)
2022	Ataxia espinocerebelosa tipo 2: caracterização de um novo modelo transgénico de murganho com fenótipo neuropatológico e motor	Congress of the Portuguese Society of Movement Disorders (luso, Portugal)
2021/10/07	G3BP1 as a therapeutic target for spinocerebellar ataxias: mitigation of pathological traits in different mouse models	4as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Centre (Moura, Portugal)
2021/02	Mapping the domains of RBP-X towards mitigation of the pathological phenotype in polyglutamine disease models	51st Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Pharmacology – Lisboa, Portugal Portuguese Society of Pharmacology
2020/02/06	Stress granules crosstalk with autophagy in a context of polyglutamine diseases	L Reunião da Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia, XXXVIII Reunião de Farmacologia Clínica e XIX Reunião de Toxicologia (Coimbra, Portugal)
2020/01/24	Stress Granules dynamics in Polyglutamine diseases	International Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Genetics Portuguese Society of Genetics (Faro, Portugal)
2017	Role of RNA binding proteins in polyglutamine diseases	21ª Reunião Anual da Sociedade Portuguesa de Genética Humana Sociedade Portuguesa de Genética Humana (Caparica, Portugal)

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2021/10 - Current	Born From Knowledge Call	Instituto Pedro Nunes, Portugal
2020/02/20 - Current	Organização da Actividade: Estudar o mundo maravilhoso do nosso cérebro	Bia Aberto Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
2018/03/16 - Current	2as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Centre Conference	2as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Centre
2022/02 - 2022/03	AINanoTech acceleration program Call	ANJE Associação Nacional de Jovens Empresários, Portugal
2022/02/09 - 2022/02/11	52ª Reunião da Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia Conference
2021/12/01 - 2021/12/03	XVII Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience
2021/10/07 - 2021/10/09	4as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Centre Conference
2021/03 - 2021/06	"Ideias em Caixa” entrepeurnership competition Call	Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
2021/02 - 2021/02	51st Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Pharmacology Conference	51st Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Pharmacology – Lisboa, Portugal Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2020/12/01 - 2021/01/26	Brain Innovation Days Pitch Competition Call	Brain Innovation Days
2020/04 - 2020/09	Building Tomorrow Together - open innovation and acceleration program for neuroscience by Roche and iMatch Call	Building Tomorrow Together
2020/02/05 - 2020/02/07	L Reunião da Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia, XXXVIII Reunião de Farmacologia Clínica, XIX Reunião de Toxicologia Conference	L Reunião da Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia, XXXVIII Reunião de Farmacologia Clínica, XIX Reunião de Toxicologia
2020/01/30 - 2020/01/31	2nd Joint WG4-WG5 TRANSAUTOPHAGY Translational Workshop Workshop	COST Action
2020/01/23 - 2020/01/24	International Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Genetics Conference	International Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Genetics
2019/11/25 - 2019/11/27	Zebrafish tools for the screening of therapeutic-relevant molecules affecting tissue mineralization Workshop	COST Action
2019/05/30 - 2019/06/01	XVI Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience Conference	XVI Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience
2019/03/28 - 2019/03/29	3as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Centre Conference	3as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Centre
2019/02/21 - 2019/02/21	Organização de Atividade - Estudar o mundo maravilhoso do nosso cérebro	Dia Aberto UAlg Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
2018/12/06 - 2018/12/07	Secretome Without Borders Conference	Secretome Without Borders
2018/02/22 - 2018/02/22	Organização de Atividade - Estudar o mundo maravilhoso do nosso cérebro	Dia Aberto UAlg Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
2018/01/11 - 2018/01/12	Suporte de Secretariado e Organização em Conferência Conference	4th MEEting of UAlg Medicine Students Universidade do Algarve Departamento de Ciências Biomédicas e Medicina, Portugal
2017/11/16 - 2017/11/18	21st Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Human Genetics Conference	21st Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Human Genetics

Association member

	Society Organization name	Role
2019 - Current	Portuguese Society for Neurosciences (SPN)

Distinctions

Award

2022	Best Oral CommunicaSon in Conference
2021	Melhor Poster - 4as Jornadas Algarve Biomedical Center Universidade do Algarve Algarve Biomedical Center, Portugal
2021	ESN-ISN Advanced School Scholarship
2021	StartUP Research scholarship
2019	PhD fellowship SFRH/BD/148533/2019 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal

Other distinction

2021	Concurso Ideias em Caixa Caixa Geral de Depositos, Portugal Universidade do Algarve, Portugal