Letícia Silva Mesquita (671B-CABB-0FA0)

Curriculum Vitae

Letícia Silva Mesquita

Letícia Mesquita holds a BSc in Microbiology from Escola Superior de Biotecnologia (ESB) of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) and a MSc in Oncology (2014) from Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS) of Universidade do Porto. Her research experience started in 2011, during her BSc as an extracurricular activity in the group of “Automation and Miniaturization” at ESB-UCP, on the development of new analytical methods to determine the concentration of iodine ions and her BSc project was also in this area. During her Master’s degree, she had the opportunity to develop her work at Instituto Português de Oncologia (IPO) of Porto as part of the group “Oncologia Molecular e Patologia Viral”. This project led to the development of two poster presentations for National and International congresses. Additionally, this work resulted in a scientific publication related to EBV infection and risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma development (DOI: 10.1016/j.imbio.2015.09.015) and a new manuscript related to this project will be submitted soon. After completing her project, she had the opportunity to stay at IPO for an internship to learn more about molecular biology techniques. From November 2015 to May 2016, she had the opportunity to work in the funded project “EnvIRONsensing – Novel iron sensing systems for biogeochemical applications”, (PTDC/AAG-MAA/3978/2012) at ESB-UCP. From June 2016 to April 2019, she was a grant holder in the funded project “SWIM - Soil water interface monitoring: development of automatic analysis tools” (PTDC/AAG-MAA/5887/2014), FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC). This research work gave her the opportunity to do poster presentations and oral communications at National and International congresses. Also, she has two scientific publications related to this project (DOI: 10.1080/00103624.2020.1751186; 10.1039/D0AY00058B). Despite her enriching experience at ESB, she recently decided to re-focus her research efforts on a topic related with healthcare and pursuit a PhD. From the beginning of 2019, she started collaborating with the Nanomedicines & Translational Drug Delivery group at Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S), Universidade do Porto as a volunteer Research Trainee, namely in the development of nanotechnology-based systems for the management of vulvovaginal candidiasis. The work was extremely fruitful and she was able to contribute to a just published review article as first author (DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics11030145). Currently, she is doing a PhD at i3S and QUB (Queen's University Belfast), under the supervision of Dr. José das Neves and co-supervision of Prof. Bruno Sarmento and Prof. Karl Malcolm. Her current interests include Candida spp. antimicrobial peptides, antifungal drugs, microbiology, nanomedicine, and vaginal drug-delivery.

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Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Letícia Silva Mesquita

Citation names

Mesquita, Letícia

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 671B-CABB-0FA0
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3250-839X

Addresses

i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 , Porto, Porto, Portugal (Professional)

Knowledge fields

Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Microbiology
Exact Sciences - Chemical Sciences
Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Molecular Biology
Engineering and Technology - Nano-technology
Medical and Health Sciences - Medical Biotechnology - Biomaterials
Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Pharmacology and pharmacy
Medical and Health Sciences - Health Sciences - Infectious Diseases

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening	Peer-review
English	Upper intermediate (B2)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Upper intermediate (B2)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2019/11/01 - 2023/10/31 Ongoing	Ciências Biomédicas (Doutoramento) Universidade do Porto Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Portugal "Vaginal Rings for Sustained Release of Nanoparticles Containing Antimicrobial Peptides as a New Strategy for Managing Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2012/09/01 - 2014/11/26 Concluded	Oncologia (Mestrado) Universidade do Porto Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Portugal "Genetic profile of immunological susceptibility to EBV infection in patients who have undergone allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	17
2009/09/01 - 2012/07/26 Concluded	Microbiologia (Licenciatura) Major in Microbiologia e Saúde Universidade Católica Portuguesa Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Portugal "Development of new analytical methods for the determination of iodine: Application in food and biological samples" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	15

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2019/11/01 - 2023/10/31	Researcher (Research)	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
	Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal
2019/05/01 - 2019/07/31	Researcher (Research)	Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal
	Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal
2019/01/01 - 2019/04/30	Research Trainee (Research)	Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal
	Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal
2016/06/01 - 2019/04/30	Researcher (Research)	Portuguesa Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina, Portugal
	Portuguesa Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina, Portugal
2015/11/01 - 2016/05/31	Research Trainee (Research)	Portuguesa Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina, Portugal
	Portuguesa Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina, Portugal
2015/07/01 - 2015/08/31	Research Trainee (Research)	Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto Francisco Gentil Centro de Investigação, Portugal
	Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto Francisco Gentil Centro de Investigação, Portugal

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2019/11/01 - 2023/10/31	Vaginal Rings for Sustained Release of Nanoparticles Containing Antimicrobial Peptides as a New Strategy for Managing Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis SFRH/BD/146423/2019 PhD Student Fellow Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal Queen's University of Belfast School of Pharmacy, United Kingdom	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2016/06/01 - 2019/12/30	SWIM - Soil water interface monitoring: development of automatic analysis tools PTDC/AAG-MAA/5887/2014 Research Fellow Portuguesa Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing

Outputs

Publications

Conference poster	Mesquita, Letícia; Malcolm, Karl; Sarmento, Bruno; das Neves, José. "Vaginal rings for sustained release of nanoparticles containing antimicrobial peptides for management of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis". Paper presented in 3rd PhDay \| Back to the Future, 2020. Mesquita LS; Mesquita RBR; Marshall G; Rangel AOSS. "Development of a flow analysis system for determination of phosphate in ground water". Paper presented in Flow Analysis XIV, 2018. Costa CFFA; Mesquita, Letícia; Rocha FV; Mesquita RBR; Rangel AOSS. "Exploring flow analysis tools for monitoring calcium and magnesium in soil leachates from laboratory scale soil columns (LSSCs)". Paper presented in Flow Analysis XIV, 2018. Mesquita LS; Mesquita RBR; Rangel M; Leite A; Moniz T; Rangel AOSS. "Monitoring soil/water interface: development of an integrated sequential injection system applied to laboratory scale soil core column and micro soil column". Paper presented in 9th Meeting of Division of Analytical Chemistry, 2018. Machado A; Mesquita RBR; Mesquita LS; Rangel M; Rangel AOSS; Bordalo AA. "Assessment of the impact synthetic Fe(III)-chelates amendment on soil microbial community dynamics". Paper presented in Microbiotec Congress of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2017. Mesquita RBR; Costa CFFA; Mesquita LS; Rangel AOSS. "Developing integrated flow analysis tools to monitor the soil-water interface: application to laboratory scale soil columns (LSSC)". Paper presented in 20th International Conference on Flow Injection Analysis, 2016. Mesquita LS; Mesquita ; Leite A; Rangel M; Rangel AOSS. "Construction of an iron(III) selective electrode with a rhodamine-based newly synthesized chelator". Paper presented in 8th Meeting of Division of Analytical Chemistry, 2016. 10.1149/1.4704977 Sousa H; Mesquita L; Marinho-Dias J; Ribeiro J; Baldaque I; Campos Jr A. "Epstein-Barr virus viral load and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients". Paper presented in 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2015. Mesquita L; Marinho-Dias J; Ribeiro J; Campos Jr A; Sousa H. "Epstein-Barr virus infection in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients". Paper presented in 13th Congresso Nacional de Oncologia, 2014.
Journal article	Facchinatto, William Marcondes; Galante, Joana; Mesquita, Letícia; Silva, Daniella Souza; Martins dos Santos, Danilo; Moraes, Tiago Bueno; Campana-Filho, Sérgio Paulo; et al. "Clotrimazole-loaded N-(2-hydroxy)-propyl-3-trimethylammonium, O-palmitoyl chitosan nanoparticles for topical treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis". Acta Biomaterialia (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2021.02.029. 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.02.029 Ferreira, Francisca T.S.M.; Mesquita, Letícia S.; Mesquita, Raquel B.R.; Rangel, António O.S.S.. "Improved sequential injection method for phosphate quantification within a wide dynamic range with in-line pre-concentration to monitor soil leachates". Talanta Open 2 (2020): 100015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.talo.2020.100015. Published • 10.1016/j.talo.2020.100015 Mesquita, Letícia. "Integrated Flow-based System Displaying an In-line Mini Soil Column to Monitor Iron Species in Soils Leachates". Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis (2020): http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2020.1751186. 10.1080/00103624.2020.1751186 Mesquita, Letícia. "Exploiting flow analysis as a tool for monitoring the leaching process of micronutrients using laboratory scale soil columns (LSSCs)". Analytical Methods (2020): http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d0ay00058b. 10.1039/d0ay00058b Mesquita, Letícia; Galante, Joana; Nunes, Rute; Sarmento, Bruno; das Neves, José. "Pharmaceutical vehicles for vaginal and rectal administration of anti-HIV microbicide nanosystems". Pharmaceutics 11 3 (2019): 145. https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/11/3/145/htm. Open access • Published • 10.3390/pharmaceutics11030145 Mesquita, Letícia; Mesquita RBR; Leite A; Moniz T; Rangel M; Rangel AOSS. "Integrated flow-based system displaying an in-line mini soil column to monitor iron species in soils leachates". Plant and Soil (2018): Submitted Sousa, Hugo; Mesquita, Letícia; Ribeiro, Joana; Catarino, Raquel; Breda, Eduardo; Medeiros, Rui. "Polymorphisms in host immune response associated genes and risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma development in Portugal". Immunobiology 221 2 (2016): 145-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.imbio.2015.09.015. Published • 10.1016/j.imbio.2015.09.015
Thesis / Dissertation	Mesquita, Letícia. "Perfil genético de suscetibilidade imunológica para infeção por EBV em doentes submetidos a transplante de células progenitoras hematopoiéticas". Master, Universidade do Porto Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, 2014. https://hdl.handle.net/10216/77896. Mesquita, Letícia. "Development of new analytical methods for the determination of iodine: Application in food and biological samples". Degree, Universidade Católica Portuguesa Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, 2012.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2018/11	Monitoring the impact of fertilizers on soil leachates using sequential injection analysis for multiparametric determination	XXIV Encontro Luso-Galego de Química (Oporto, Portugal)
2018/11	In-line phosphate pre-concentration in a flow injection method platform for monitoring fertilizers excess in soil leachate	XXIV Encontro Luso-Galego de Química (Oporto, Portugal)
2018/03	Monitoring soil/water interface: development of an integrated sequential injection system applied to laboratory scale soil core column and micro soil column	9th Meeting of Division of Analytical Chemistry (Oporto, Portugal)
2017/09	Soil/water interface assessment using sequential injection for multi-parametric analysis	21st International Conference on Flow Injection Analysis and Related Techniques (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2021/02/18 - 2021/02/19	4th International Conference on Biological and Biomimetic Adhesives (virtual) Conference	4th International Conference on Biological and Biomimetic Adhesives
2021/01/21 - 2021/01/21	3rd SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting (virtual) Meeting	3rd SPLC-CRS Young Scientists Meeting
2020/10/14 - 2020/10/15	15th ETPN 2020 Nanotherapeutics and Targeted Delivery Meeting (virtual) Meeting	15th Annual Event of the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (ETPN2020)
2020/10/01 - 2020/10/01	3rd PhDay, Back to the Future Meeting	3rd PhDay Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal
2019/12/20 - 2019/12/20	2nd Meeting of the PhD in Biomedical Sciences Meeting	2nd Meeting of the PhD in Biomedical Sciences Universidade do Porto Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Portugal
2019/11/28 - 2019/11/29	8th i3S Annual Meeting Congress	8th i3S Annual Meeting Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal

Course / Discipline taught

	Academic session	Degree Subject (Type)	Institution / Organization
2019/03/27 - 2019/04/03	Projeto Biofase: aula de Química	(Ensino secundário)	Universidade Católica Portuguesa Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Portugal
2018/09/14 - 2018/09/14	Boas Práticas Laboratoriais	Microbiologia (Licenciatura)	Universidade Católica Portuguesa Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Portugal

Distinctions

Award

2014	3rd prize in the poster category: 13th National Congress of Oncology