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Ana Verónica Domingues graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Minho in 2016 and received her MSc in Health Sciences from the same institution in 2018. In September 2024, she completed her PhD in Health Sciences at the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), which she began in October 2019 after being awarded a doctoral fellowship by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). During her PhD, her research focused on understanding the neural basis of motivation in Dr. Ana João Rodrigues' lab at ICVS, University of Minho. She is currently a research fellow in the same lab, working on an ERC-funded project. Her research focuses on unraveling the neural circuits involved in reward, aversion and self-paced operant behaviors, employing 1-photon miniaturized microscopes and optogenetic techniques [Nature Communications, 2024]. Her scientific output includes 17 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, with over 400 citations and an h-index of 10 (Scopus). Of these, 5 papers have been published as first author in the last five years. Selected publications include first-author papers in Nature Communications, Translational Psychiatry and the Journal of Neurochemistry. She has been awarded with travel grants to participate in several scientific conferences, including ISN, FENS and ECNP. Additionally, she has contributed to multiple research projects, including both past and ongoing grants funded by the "la Caixa" Foundation, FCT, ERC and the BIAL Foundation.
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Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Ana Verónica Domingues

Citation names

  • Domingues, Ana Verónica

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
B314-2818-1F65
ORCID iD
0000-0003-2605-8254
Scopus Author Id
57202853958

Email addresses

  • id8807@alunos.uminho.pt (Professional)

Websites

Knowledge fields

  • Medical and Health Sciences - Medical Biotechnology - Technologies Involving the Manipulation of Cells, Tissues, Organs or the Whole Organism
  • Medical and Health Sciences - Health Sciences
  • Medical and Health Sciences - Basic Medicine - Neurosciences
  • Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Biochemistry

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1) Advanced (C1)
Education
Degree Classification
2019/10/01 - 2024
Concluded
 Doutoramento em Ciências da Saúde (Doutoramento)
Major in Neurociências
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2022/05/02 - 2022/05/21
Concluded
 CAJAL course on Neural circuit basis of computation and behaviour (Outros)
Bordeaux Neurosciences, France
2020/09 - 2020/10
Concluded
 Computational Data Analysis, School of Medicine (Curso de doutoramento (conclusão de unidades curriculares))
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2019/11 - 2019/12
Concluded
 Bioinformatics in Health Sciences (Curso de doutoramento (conclusão de unidades curriculares))
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2018/01/30 - 2018/02/10
Concluded
 Laboratory Animal Science (LAS) (Outros)
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
2016 - 2018
Concluded
 Mestrado em Ciências da Saúde (Mestrado)
Major in Neurociências
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
"Finding new secretomes for Parkinson's Disease Regenerative Medicine Applications" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2013 - 2016
Concluded
 Bioquimica (Licenciatura)
Universidade do Minho Escola de Ciências, Portugal
"Clarify the role of Tau protein in dynamics of mitochondria morphometry and neuronal structure under stressful conditions" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
Affiliation

Science

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2024/01/01 - 2024/12/31 Researcher (Research) Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
Universidade do Minho, Portugal
2018/08/03 - 2019/07 Researcher (Research) Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal

Others

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2017/10 - 2018/06 Master in Health Sciences; Thesis project: "Finding new secretomes for Parkinson's Disease Regenerative Medicine Applications" Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
2016 - 2016 Final Research Stage of Licenciatura em Bioquímica- "Clarify the role of Tau protein in dynamics of mitochondria morphometry and neuronal structure under stressful conditions" Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
Projects

Grant

Designation Funders
2021 - 2026/04/30 Challenging current models of Valence encoding in the mammalian brain
ERC Consolidator 101003187
Researcher
Laboratório Associado ICVS 3B's, Portugal
 European Research Council
Ongoing
2023 - 2024/12/30 Genetic and functional maps of neuronal ensembles encoding natural rewards versus drugs of abuse
2022.01467.PTDC
Researcher
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
2021 - 2024/12/30 Neuronal circuits of reward and aversion: where do endogenous opioids stand?
PTDC/MED-NEU/4804/2020
Researcher
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
2021 - 2024/11/30 Defining how cocaine alters laterodorsal tegmentum to nucleus accumbens inputs and relevance for the development of natural reward deficits
PTDC/SAU-TOX/6802/2020
Researcher
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
 Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento da FCT
Ongoing
2022 - 2024 Sorting out the interplay between stress and the proteostasis regulator SNX27 on the reward circuit
2022.04850.PTDC
Researcher
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
2021 - 2023/11/30 The role of nucleus accumbens in the perception of natural rewards
175/20
Researcher
Laboratório Associado ICVS 3B's, Portugal
 Fundação Bial
Ongoing
2020 - 2023/11/30 Encoding reward and aversion in the mammalian brain: the overlooked role of endogenous opioids
HR20-01000
Researcher
Laboratório Associado ICVS 3B's, Portugal
 Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona
Ongoing
2018 - 2021/06/30 Impact of prenatal stress in the reward system: from depression to addiction and back
PTDC/MED-NEU/29071/2017
Other
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Concluded
2018 - 2021/01 Combining Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) Secretome and Pharmacotherapies for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease
PTDC/MED-FAR/29751/2017
Other
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Concluded
2018/08/03 - 2020 Exploring the Neural Basis of Motivation
30/2016
Research Fellow
Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal

Fundação Bial, Portugal
Fundação Bial
Concluded

Contract

Designation Funders
2023/01/02 - 2024/07/01 Sorting out the interplay between stress and the proteostasis regulator SNX27 on the reward circuit
2022.04850.PTDC
10.54499/2022.04850.PTDC
Universidade do Minho, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
2018/07/01 - 2021/06/30 Impacto do stress prenatal no sistema de recompensa: da depressão à adição
PTDC/MED-NEU/29071/2017
Universidade do Minho, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
Outputs

Publications

Conference poster
  1. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Carvalho, Tawan T. A.; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Dynamic representation of appetitive and aversive stimuli in NAc shell D1- and D2-MSNs". Paper presented in FENS Forum, 2024.
  2. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Carvalho, Tawan T. A.; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Encoding of valence by nucleus accumbens neurons". Paper presented in ISN-ESN Meeting, 2023.
  3. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Correia, Raquel; Deseyve, Catarina; Floresco, Stan B.; Nuno Sousa; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Prenatal glucocorticoid exposure alters effort decision making and triggers nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex functional changes". Paper presented in FENS Forum, 2022.
  4. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Correia, Raquel; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Rodrigues, Ana João. "ALTERATION ON EFFORT DECISION MAKING IN A MODEL OF PRENATAL STRESS: NAC AND ACC FUNCTIONAL CHANGES". Paper presented in ISN- ASN Meeting, 2022.
  5. Domingues, Ana Verónica. "Finding new secretomes for Parkinson's Disease Regenerative Medicine Applications". Paper presented in ECNP Workshop for Early Career Scientists in Europe, 2019.
  6. Gaspar, Rita; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Coimbra, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, Ana João; Gomes, Catarina. "Prenatal glucocorticoid exposure alters microglia in a sex-specific manner and blunts stress-induced behavioral changes in adulthood". Paper presented in Glia - XIV European Meeting on Glial Cells in Health and Disease, 2019.
  7. Domingues, Ana Verónica. "Finding new secretomes for Parkinson's Disease Regenerative Medicine Applications". Paper presented in 1st international symposium Secretome With]Out[ Borders, 2018.
  8. Soares-Cunha, C.; Coimbra, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Vasconcelos, Nivaldo A.P; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, A.J.. "Nucleus accumbens microcircuit underlying D2-MSN-driven increase in motivation". Paper presented in FENS Forum, 2018.
Journal article
  1. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Carvalho, Tawan T. A.; Martins , J Gabriela ; Correia, Raquel; Coimbra, Bárbara; Bastos-Gonçalves; Wezik, Marcelina Olga; et al. Corresponding author: Soares-Cunha, Carina. "Dynamic representation of appetitive and aversive stimuli in nucleus accumbens shell D1- and D2-medium spiny neurons". Nature Communications (2024): https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.22.581563.
    Accepted
  2. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Deseyve, Catarina; Carvalho, Tawan T. A.; Armada, Gisela; Correia, Raquel; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Wezik, Marcelina; et al. "Nucleus accumbens neurons dynamically respond to appetitive and aversive associative learning". Journal of Neurochemistry 168 3 (2024): 312-327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jnc.16063.
    10.1111/jnc.16063
  3. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Rodrigues, Ana João; Soares-Cunha, Carina. "A novel perspective on the role of nucleus accumbens neurons in encoding associative learning". FEBS Letters (2023): http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.14727.
    10.1002/1873-3468.14727
  4. Correia, Raquel; Coimbra, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Wezik, Marcelina; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Gaspar, Rita; Sousa, Nuno; et al. "Involvement of nucleus accumbens D2–medium spiny neurons projecting to the ventral pallidum in anxiety-like behaviour". Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 48 4 (2023): E267-E284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1503/jpn.220111.
    10.1503/jpn.220111
  5. Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Correia, Raquel; Deseyve, Catarina; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; Floresco, Stan B.; Sousa, Nuno; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Prenatal dexamethasone exposure alters effort decision making and triggers nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex functional changes in male rats". Translational Psychiatry 12 1 (2022): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02043-4.
    10.1038/s41398-022-02043-4
  6. Gaspar, Rita; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Baptista, Filipa I.; Pinto, Luísa; Ambrósio, António F.; Rodrigues, Ana João; Gomes, Catarina A.. "The Duration of Stress Determines Sex Specificities in the Vulnerability to Depression and in the Morphologic Remodeling of Neurons and Microglia". Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 16 (2022): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.834821.
    10.3389/fnbeh.2022.834821
  7. Soares-Cunha, Carina; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Correia, Raquel; Coimbra, Bárbara; Vieitas-Gaspar, Natacha; de Vasconcelos, Nivaldo A.P.; Pinto, Luísa; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Distinct role of nucleus accumbens D2-MSN projections to ventral pallidum in different phases of motivated behavior". Cell Reports 38 7 (2022): 110380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110380.
    10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110380
  8. Loureiro-Campos, Eduardo; Mateus-Pinheiro, António; Patrício, Patrícia; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Silva, Joana; Sardinha, Vanessa Morais; Mendes-Pinheiro, Bárbara; et al. "Constitutive deficiency of the neurogenic hippocampal modulator AP2¿ promotes anxiety-like behavior and cumulative memory deficits in mice from juvenile to adult periods". eLife 10 (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.70685.
    Open access • 10.7554/elife.70685
  9. Vilaça-Faria, Helena; Marote, Ana; Lages, Inês; Ribeiro, Clarisse; Mendes-Pinheiro, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Campos, Jonas; et al. "Fractionating stem cells secretome for Parkinson's disease modeling: Is it the whole better than the sum of its parts?". Biochimie 189 (2021): 87-98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biochi.2021.06.008.
    10.1016/j.biochi.2021.06.008
  10. Gaspar, Rita; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Baptista, Filipa I.; Pinto, Luísa; Ambrósio, António F.; Rodrigues, Ana João; Gomes, Catarina A.. "Resilience to stress and sex-specific remodeling of microglia and neuronal morphology in a rat model of anxiety and anhedonia". Neurobiology of Stress 14 (2021): 100302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2021.100302.
    10.1016/j.ynstr.2021.100302
  11. Domingues, Ana V.; Pereira, Inês M.; Vilaça-Faria, Helena; Salgado, António J.; Rodrigues, Ana J.; Teixeira, Fábio G.. "Glial cells in Parkinson´s disease: protective or deleterious?". Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 77 24 (2020): 5171-5188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00018-020-03584-x.
    10.1007/s00018-020-03584-x
  12. Barata-Antunes, Sandra; Teixeira, Fábio G.; Mendes-Pinheiro, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Vilaça-Faria, Helena; Marote, Ana; Silva, Deolinda; Sousa, Rui A.; Salgado, António J.. "Impact of Aging on the 6-OHDA-Induced Rat Model of Parkinson’s Disease". International Journal of Molecular Sciences 21 10 (2020): 3459. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21103459.
    10.3390/ijms21103459
  13. Teixeira, Fábio G.; Vilaça-Faria, Helena; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Campos, Jonas; Salgado, António J.. "Preclinical Comparison of Stem Cells Secretome and Levodopa Application in a 6-Hydroxydopamine Rat Model of Parkinson’s Disease". Cells 9 2 (2020): 315. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells9020315.
    10.3390/cells9020315
  14. Soares-Cunha, Carina; de Vasconcelos, Nivaldo A. P.; Coimbra, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Silva, Joana M.; Loureiro-Campos, Eduardo; Gaspar, Rita; et al. "Correction: Nucleus accumbens medium spiny neurons subtypes signal both reward and aversion". Molecular Psychiatry 25 12 (2019): 3448-3448. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0525-y.
    10.1038/s41380-019-0525-y
  15. Coimbra, Bárbara; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Vasconcelos, Nivaldo A P; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Borges, Sónia; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Role of laterodorsal tegmentum projections to nucleus accumbens in reward-related behaviors". Nature Communications 10 1 (2019): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11557-3.
    10.1038/s41467-019-11557-3
  16. Domingues, V.; Faria, H.; Soares-Cunha, C.; Mendes-Pinheiro, B.; Serra, S.; Salgado, A.; Rodrigues, A.J.; Teixeira, F.G.. "P.2.22 Finding new secretomes for Parkinson's disease regenerative medicine applications". European Neuropsychopharmacology 29 (2019): S670-S671. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.01.053.
    Published • 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.01.053
  17. Soares-Cunha, Carina; Coimbra, Bárbara; Borges, Sónia; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Silva, Deolinda; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Mild Prenatal Stress Causes Emotional and Brain Structural Modifications in Rats of Both Sexes". Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 12 (2018): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00129.
    10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00129
  18. Soares-Cunha, Carina; Coimbra, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Vasconcelos, Nivaldo; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, Ana João. "Nucleus Accumbens Microcircuit Underlying D2-MSN-Driven Increase in Motivation". eneuro 5 2 (2018): ENEURO.0386-18.2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/eneuro.0386-18.2018.
    Open access • Published • 10.1523/eneuro.0386-18.2018
Thesis / Dissertation
  1. "Dissecting the role of nucleus accumbens circuitry in associative learning and motivated behaviors". PhD, Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, 2024.
  2. "Finding new secretomes for Parkinson's Disease Regenerative Medicine Applications". Master, Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, 2018.
  3. "Clarify the role of Tau protein in dynamics of mitochondria morphometry and neuronal structure under stressful conditions". Degree, Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, 2016.
Activities

Oral presentation

Presentation title Event name
Host (Event location)
2024/06 Neural dynamics of associative learning in the Nucleus Accumbens ICVS retreat 2024
ICVS (Braga, Portugal)
2023/11 Dynamic representation of appetitive and aversive stimuli in nucleus accumbens neurons ICVS Seminar
ICVS, University of Minho (Braga, Portugal)
2023/08 Functional maps of neuronal ensembles encoding associative learning ISN-ESN Meeting
ISN-ESN (Porto, Portugal)
2019/08 Convergence of reward and aversion processing in nucleus accumbens medium spiny neuron subtypes 2019 ISN- ASN Meeting
International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) and American Society of Neurochemistry (ASN) (Montreal, Canada)
2019/03/08 Finding new secretomes for Parkinson's Disease Regenerative Medicine Applications ECNP Workshop for Early Career Scientists in Europe
ECNP (Nice, France)
2019/02 Stress coping in adulthood in a model of prenatal stress: gender differences XLIX Annual Meeting of The Portuguese Pharmacological Society
Sociedade Portuguesa de Farmacologia (Porto, Portugal)
2018/11/03 Nucleus accumbens microcircuit underlying D2-MSN-driven increase in motivation. SfN Neuroscience 2018
Society for Neuroscience (SfN) (San Diego, United States)
2018/04 Nucleus accumbens microcircuit underlying D2-MSN-dependent increase in motivation. The Brain Conference on Computational Neuroscience of Prediction
The brain prize (Rungstedgaard, Denmark)

Event organisation

Event name
Type of event (Role) 		Institution / Organization
2018/06 - 2018/12 1st international symposium Secretome With]Out[ Borders. (2018/12/06 - 2018/12/07)
Congress (Co-organisor)
 Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal

Association member

Society Organization name Role
2022 - Current International Society of Neurochemistry (ISN) Member
2022 - Current Portuguese Society for Neurosciences (SPN) Member
2022 - Current Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Member

Course / Discipline taught

Academic session Degree Subject (Type) Institution / Organization
2024 - 2025 Computational approaches to neuronal and behavioral data analysis (Pós-Graduação) Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2024/05 - 2024/06 Brain & Behaviour (Licenciatura) Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2024/03 - 2024/05 Advanced techniques and methodologies for brain circuit-level analyses (Pós-Graduação) Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2022/04/26 - 2022/05/09 Advanced methods for imaging and manipulation of neuronal circuits in vivo (Pós-Graduação) Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal

Universidade do Minho Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde, Portugal

Mentoring / Tutoring

Topic Student name
2024/09 - 2025 Role of nucleus accumbens neurons in encoding social rewards Maria Vieira
2024/04/01 - 2024/04/30 Laboratory Animal Sciences Lab Rotation - Master program in Health Sciences Margarida Macedo
2023/03 - 2023/06 Role of endogenous opioids in encoding reward and aversion João Frei
2023 - 2023 Encoding reward and aversion in the brain Mariana Nunes
2021/02/15 - 2021/10/15 Role of endogenous opioids in reward and aversion Marcelina Wezik
2021 - 2021 Neuronal substrates of effort-based decision-making: integration of signals from the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and the Nucleus Accumbens Pedro Macedo
2020/02/01 - 2020/02/28 Laboratory Animal Sciences Lab Rotation - Master program in Health Sciences Natacha Gaspar
2019/03/01 - 2019/03/31 Laboratory Animal Sciences Lab Rotation - Master program in Health Sciences Raquel Correia
Distinctions

Award

2024 Travel award granted by SPN to attend FENS meeting 2024, Vienna, Austria
Sociedade Portuguesa de Neurociências, Portugal
2022 Travel award for Cajal course on Neural circuit basis of computation and behaviour
2022 Travel award for ISN-APSN meeting 2022
2021 Research Incentive Award
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2021 Best Manuscript 2020
Sociedade Portuguesa de Neurociências, Portugal
2020 Research Incentive Award
Universidade do Minho Escola de Medicina, Portugal
2019 Travel award for the ECNP workshop on Neuropsychopharmachology for Junior Scientists in Europe