Catarina Isabel Carvalhas de Almeida (901F-0194-5041)

Curriculum Vitae

Catarina Isabel Carvalhas de Almeida

Catarina is currently a visiting graduate student at Sehgal Lab - University of Pennsylvania, under a Fulbright fellowship. She is a PhD student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, doing a project about sleep disorders and disease modeling at the Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology - Neuroendrocrinology and Aging group (CNC-UC, N&A group), headed by Cláudia Cavadas. Catarina holds a BSc degree in Biotechnology and MSc in Cell and Molecular Biology with research experience that has provided a well-rounded background in neuroscience. During her MSc thesis, at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM) she gained expertise in neuroinflammation, glial cells communication and epilepsy. Afterward, she joined Megan Carey's Lab at the Champalimaud Foundation Center for the Unknown, where she was responsible for several behavior tests using optogenetics and viral tools and contributed to managing multiple projects simultaneously. In the past years, she became very interested in the Chronobiology & Sleep disorders field and began working at CNC-UC, N&A group. Her career path has made Catarina an adaptable and responsible young researcher seeking to contribute with knowledge to the Chronobiology field.

Read full resume ↓

Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Catarina Isabel Carvalhas de Almeida

Citation names

Almeida, Catarina
Carvalhas-Almeida, Catarina

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 901F-0194-5041
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4942-8249

Addresses

Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology. Faculdade de Medicina, Polo I, Rua Larga, Universidade de Coimbra, 3004-504, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal (Professional)

Websites

https://www.linkedin.com/in/catarina-carvalhas/ (Social media)

Knowledge fields

Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Neurosciences

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English	Advanced (C1)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)
Spanish; Castilian	Intermediate (B1)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Intermediate (B1)	Upper intermediate (B2)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2021/11/01 - 2024/12/01 Ongoing	Programa Doutoral em Ciências Farmacêuticas (Doutoramento) Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2021/02/01 - 2024/02/01 Ongoing	EIT health Ageing PhD School (Doutoramento) EIT Health, Germany
2020/02/08 - 2020/02/08 Concluded	IELTS (Diploma de especialização) University of Cambridge, United Kingdom British Council Portugal, Portugal	Band score 7.5 - C1
2018/10/20 - 2018/11/30 Concluded	Course on Laboratory Animal Science for Function B, (FELASA, Cat.B) (Especialização pós-licenciatura) Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
2016/09/10 - 2018/09/30 Concluded	Cell and Molecular Biology with Neurobiology specialization (Mestrado) Major in Neurobiolgy Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Portugal "Relevance of astrocytes/microglia communication for NLRP3 signalling in the CNS – proof of concept in an ex vivo model of epilepsy" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	18/20
2013/09/12 - 2016/07/29 Concluded	Biotechnology (Licenciatura) Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra, Portugal "Evaluate the mutation c.900_901dupGT effect of the GRN gene in immune response and autophagy: A study in heterozygous and homozygous patients" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	15/20
2015/09/01 - 2016/02/29 Concluded	Biotechnology (Bachelor (1st cycle)) Mendelova univerzita v Brne, Czech Republic	A

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2019/12/01 - 2020/12/31	Research Assistant (Research)	CNC.IBILI, Portugal
	Neuroendrocrinology and Aging Group, Cavadas' Laboratory - CNC.IBILI, Portugal
2019/07/01 - 2019/11/30	Research Trainee (Research)	Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal

2018/10/01 - 2019/06/30	Research Assistant (Research)	Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
	Megan Carey's Laboratory - Fundação Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Portugal

Others

	Category Host institution	Employer
2017/05/01 - 2018/09/30	MSc Thesis Student	Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal
	Ana Sebastião's Laboratory - Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal
2016/04/01 - 2016/08/31	BSc Thesis Student	CNC.IBILI, Portugal
	Vectors and Gene Therapy Group - Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology - CNC, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal
2015/07/01 - 2015/07/31	Summer Internship	Sonae Indústria, Portugal

Projects

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2019/12/01 - 2020/11/30	"HEALTHYAGING 2020 (CENTR0-01-0145-FEDER-000012)" CENTR0-01-0145-FEDER-000012 Other CNC.IBILI, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing
2018/10/01 - 2019/06/30	”Undestanding the role of climbing fiber inputs to the cerebellum” and ”Dissecting the role of cerebellar cortex vs. deep cerebellar nucleus on eyelid conditioning”. 640093 Research Technician Fellow Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal Megan Carey's Laboratory - Fundação Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, Portugal	Concluded

Outputs

Publications

Conference abstract	Almeida, Catarina; Ribeiro, Antónia F.; Sebastião, Ana M; Cláudia A. Valente. "NLRP3 Inflammasome assembly in microglia-induced reactive astrocytes". Paper presented in XVI Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience (SPN2019) published at the Journal Frontiers in Cell. Neurosci. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncel.2019.01.00019, Lisbon, 2019. Published
Conference poster	"Insomnia patient-derived iPSC neurons with potential for disease modeling". Paper presented in World Sleep Congress 2022, 2022. F. Ribeiro, Antónia; Almeida, Catarina; Sebastião, Ana M; Cláudia, A. Valente. "NLRP3 Inflammasome assembly in microglia-induced reactive astrocytes". Paper presented in XVI Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience (SPN2019), 2019. Almeida, Catarina; Ribeiro, Antónia; Sebastião, Ana M; Cláudia A. Valente. "Microglia-dependent activation of NLRP3 inflammasome within astrocytes". Paper presented in Mind-Brain College 4th Annual Meeting, 2018. Almeida, Catarina; Sebastião, Ana M; Cláudia A. Valente. "Is astrocytes/microglia communication relevant for NLRP3 signalling in the brain?". Paper presented in FENS Forum Annual Meeting - Berlin, 2018, 2018. Almeida, Catarina. "How does astrocytes/microglia communication impact NLRP3 signalling in the CNS?". Paper presented in Portuguese Glial Network - III Symposium i3S, Porto, 2018. Almeida, Catarina; Sebastião, Ana M; Cláudia A. Valente. "Relevance of astrocytes/microglia communication for NLRP3 signalling in the CNS – proof of concept in an ex vivo model of epilepsy". Paper presented in SynaNet 2nd Annual Scientific Meeting, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 2018.
Journal article	Helena Leal; Catarina Carvalhas-Almeida; Ana Rita Álvaro; Cláudia Cavadas. "Modeling hypothalamic pathophysiology in vitro for metabolic, circadian, and sleep disorders". Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism (2024): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2024.01.001. 10.1016/j.tem.2024.01.001 Catarina Carvalhas-Almeida; Joana Serra; Joaquim Moita; Cláudia Cavadas; Ana Rita Alvaro. "Understanding neuron-glia crosstalk and biological clocks in insomnia". Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (2023): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105100. 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105100 Catarina Carvalhas-Almeida; Cláudia Cavadas; Ana Rita Álvaro. "The impact of insomnia on frailty and the hallmarks of aging". Aging Clinical and Experimental Research (2022): https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-022-02310-w. 10.1007/s40520-022-02310-w Catarina Almeida. "Peripheral biomarkers to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis". Sleep Medicine Reviews 64 (2022): 101659-101659. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2022.101659. 10.1016/j.smrv.2022.101659 Gaspar, Laetitia S.; Hesse, Janina; Yalçin, Müge; Santos, Bárbara; Carvalhas-Almeida, Catarina; Ferreira, Mafalda; Moita, Joaquim; et al. "Long-term continuous positive airway pressure treatment ameliorates biological clock disruptions in obstructive sleep apnea". EBioMedicine 65 (2021): 103248. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103248. 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103248 Gaspar, Laetitia; Santos, Bárbara; Barros-Viegas, Ana T.; Cardoso, Joao; Varela Amaral, Sara; Almeida, Catarina; Cavadas, Claudia; Álvaro, Ana Rita ; Santos-Carvalho, Ana. "The Superpowers of our Sleep". Frontiers for Young Minds (2020): Submitted • Assistant staff
Website	Almeida, Catarina. "O que é a COVID-19?" "What is COVID-19?". 2020. https://www.uc.pt/covid19/article?preview=true&key=a-bbf31d2c49.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2017/09/23	Relevance of astrocytes/microglia communication for NLRP3 signalling in the CNS – proof of concept in an ex vivo model of epilepsy	IMM Neurosciences Seminar Instituto de Medicina Molecular, University of Lisbon (Coimbra, Portugal)

Event organisation

	Event name Type of event (Role)	Institution / Organization
2019/12/15 - 2024/05/15	World Sleep Day 2020-present: Organization and Participation in the World Sleep Day related events in collaboration with Associação Portuguesa do Sono (APS). (2020/03/13 - 2024/03/20) Other (Member of the Organising Committee)	CNC.IBILI, Portugal Associação Portuguesa do Sono, Portugal
2017/11/01 - 2018/02/07	XLVIII Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Pharmacology Society (2018/02/05 - 2018/02/07) Meeting (Member of the Organising Committee)	Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal
2017/10/01 - 2018/01/29	Organizing Comitee of SynaNet 3rd Annual Meeting (2018/01/16 - 2018/01/18) Meeting (Member of the Organising Committee)	Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2020/03/30 - 2020/06/30	Participated in different activities for the diagnosis of COVID-19, including sample processing, virus inactivation and RT-PCR. Other	Volunteer for COVID-19 diagnosis at COVID-19 UC Lab, Laboratório de Análises Clínicas, University of Coimbra Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2020/02/05 - 2020/02/07	L Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Pharmacology Society is the main conference in Portugal that represents the scientific progress in Experimental Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. Meeting	L Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Pharmacology Society Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Farmácia, Portugal
2019/12/01 - 2020/01/31	The basics of Research Data Management Other	The basics of Research Data Management Universidade do Minho, Portugal
2019/12/19 - 2019/12/20	The CIBB meeting 2019 at the Unidade Central Polo III, University of Coimbra, helps to promote and strengthen the scientific excellence of different Research Centres located in Coimbra. Meeting	Center for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CIBB) Meeting CNC.IBILI, Portugal
2019/11/21 - 2019/11/21	From Knowledge to Market, a Tech Intensive Entrepreneurship Session/ FuEL Your Ambition - Workshop is an immersive session on the potential for commercial exploration of knowledge/technology developed by groups of researchers and other entrepreneurs, bringing a Belgian company with over 50 years of experience in this technology transfer and prototyping to help scientists translate their research. Workshop	From Knowledge to Market, a Tech Intensive Entrepreneurship Session/ FuEL Your Ambition - Workshop Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento em Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal Instituto Pedro Nunes, Portugal
2018/07/07 - 2018/07/11	FENS Forum Annual Meeting 2018, at Berlin, Germany is the biggest european congress for neuroscience, presenting the latest research on different neuroscience-related fields. Congress	FENS Forum Annual Meeting Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, Belgium
2018/06/11 - 2018/06/16	SynaNet 2018 Summer School: ”Signals from the brain” practical workshops and talks about electrophisiology, calcium imaging and techniques to study cell-to-cell communication. Fostering of international scientific collaborations. Twinning action financed by H2020 - Neurologic and Psychiatric Disorders: from synapses to networks (SynaNet), Portugal Workshop	SynaNet 2018 Summer School: ”Signals from the brain” Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Italy
2018/05/18 - 2018/05/18	The Portuguese Glial Network gathers portuguese researchers, as well as foreign researchers, who are interested in the role of glial cells in the function of the nervous system, in health and disease conditions. Symposium	Portuguese Glial Network - III Symposium Universidade do Porto Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Portugal
2018/02/20 - 2018/02/21	2nd Ed. of the Workshop Career Development and Soft Skills for young scientists – From Lisbon to the World is focused on training scientists to be excellent researchers and inspiring leaders. The scientific training is complemented with soft skills training, which are useful both in academic and industrial environments and was conducted by leaders from R&D Pierre Fabre, Institute Curie Paris and University College London. Workshop	Second Edition of the Workshop Career Development and Soft Skills for young scientists – From Lisbon to the World Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal
2018/02/05 - 2018/02/07	XLVIII Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Pharmacology Society is the main conference in Portugal that represents the scientific progress in Experimental Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. Meeting	XLVIII Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Pharmacology Society Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Medicina, Portugal
2018/01/16 - 2018/01/18	SynaNet 2nd Annual Scientific Meeting and Satellite Symposium on ”Neurologic and Psychiatric Disorders” comprises the consorciam of four different European Universities: University of Lisbon, Portugal; La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Kwopio University of Eastern Finland, Finland; Lancaster University, United Kingdom Symposium	SynaNet 2nd Annual Scientific Meeting and Satellite Symposium on ”Neurologic and Psychiatric Disorders” Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Portugal
2017/12/12 - 2017/12/14	Talks and practical workshops about the Basics of Flow Cytometry. Fostering of international scientific collaborations. Twinning action financed by H2020 - Neurologic and Psychiatric Disorders: from synapses to networks (SynaNet), Portugal Workshop	SynaNet Winter School and Workshop on Basics of Flow Cytometry Itä-Suomen yliopisto - Kuopion kampus, Finland
2017/10/19 - 2017/10/20	The Mind-Brain College of the University of Lisbon integrates 7 Schools (Faculdade de Ciências (FCUL), Faculdade de Farmácia (FFUL), Faculdade de Letras (FLUL), Faculdade de Medicina (FMUL), Faculdade de Psicologia (FPUL), Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) e Instituto de Ciências Socias (ICS), which organize every year a meeting to connect research centers in essential areas important to the mind and brain studies. Meeting	3rd Students Meeting of Mind-Brain College Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Medicina, Portugal
2017/09/25 - 2017/09/29	Seminars and practical courses on animal models to study neurologic diseases and behaviour and workshop on career development. Fostering of international scientific collaborations. Twinning action financed by H2020 - Neurologic and Psychiatric Disorders: from synapses to networks (SynaNet), Portugal Workshop	SynaNet Summer School “Behavioural Models of Disease – Diverse Routes to Translation” and “Developing your Career” Workshop Lancaster University, United Kingdom
2016/11/29 - 2016/11/29	New Perspectives in Academic Careers in Portugal held by the American Society for Microbiology is about the prospects for researchers focusing on academic careers. Additionally, they provide a workshop on Scientific Writing and Publishing for young researchers to improve their skills on writing and publishing. Conference	New Perspectives in Academic Careers in Portugal Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2016/11/18 - 2016/11/19	1st International Symposium is an event that promotes the discussion on fundamental and translational research in stem cell biology applied to the central nervous system where a group of leading researchers from all over the world discuss their work, sharing recent findings on 2D and 3D in vitro neuronal models, stem cell transplantation, in vivo gene therapy and neural tissue engineering. Symposium	1st International Symposium ”Brain With Out Borders” Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2016/07/18 - 2016/07/22	Seminars and practical hands-on workshops on Cell Culture and Tissue theoretical and practical training. Workshop	IV Cell Culture and Tissue Training Course Universidade de Coimbra Faculdade de Medicina, Portugal

Association member

	Society Organization name	Role
2018/04/01 - 2020/02/27	Portuguese Glial Network	Member

Distinctions

Award

2023	Fulbright Grant for Research with the support of FCT (2023/2024) Fulbright Portugal, Portugal
2023	Travel award from SPN to attend the FENS Forum Regional Meeting in Algarve, May 2023 Sociedade Portuguesa de Neurociências, Portugal
2023	Best graphical abstract - BEB day meeting, Coimbra, Portugal Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2020	Selected for Scicare Novartis Program - Total Immersion Week Novartis Farma SA, Portugal
2019	2nd Best Pitch From Knowledge to Market, a Tech Intensive Entrepreneurship Session/ FuEL Your Ambition - Workshop Instituto Pedro Nunes, Portugal

Other distinction

2015	Erasmus+ Mobility Fellowship for my BSc in Biotecnology (winter semester of 2015/2016) at Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic Erasmus Plus, Belgium Mendelova univerzita v Brne, Czech Republic Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra, Portugal