Luana Ferreira Afonso (B61E-1382-AC71)

Curriculum Vitae

Luana Ferreira Afonso

Luana Afonso has a degree in Bioprocess Engineering (2017) and a Master's in Biological Sciences (2019). She is currently doing a Ph.D. in Biosciences at the University of Coimbra in a project related to network biology and artificial intelligence in drug discovery. Luana has experience with bioinformatics, such as genomics and transcriptomics analysis and data science projects.

Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Luana Ferreira Afonso

Citation names

Afonso, Luana
Afonso LF

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: B61E-1382-AC71
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8895-3011

Email addresses

luana.afonso213@gmail.com (Personal)

Telephones

Mobile phone

(+351) 915900287 (Personal)

Websites

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luana-ferreira-afonso/ (Social media)
https://github.com/luana-afonso (Personal)

Knowledge fields

Exact Sciences - Computer and Information Sciences - Bioinformatics
Engineering and Technology - Industrial Biotechnology - Industrial Biotechnology
Natural sciences - Biological Sciences - Molecular Biology

Languages

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

Education

	Degree	Classification
2023/02/01 - 2027/02/01 Ongoing	Biociências (Doutoramento) Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2017/08/01 - 2019/11/12 Concluded	Biological Sciences (Biophysics) (Master) Major in Molecular and Structural Biology and Cell Biology Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Brazil "Transcriptomic Analysis of Gonads of the Invasive Golden Mussel Limnoperna fortunei and Identification of Potential Genes of its Sexual Development" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	19
2010/08/16 - 2017/08/16 Concluded	Bioprocess Engineering (Bachelor) Major in Biotechnology and Industrial Ecology Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Química, Brazil "Evaluation of Physical-Chemical and Biological Treatment Technologies for Wastewater Reuse in the Biodiesel Industry" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	14

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2014/08/01 - 2016/08/01	Research Assistant (Research)	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Química, Brazil
	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Química, Brazil
2013/07/01 - 2013/12/01	Visiting Researcher (Research)	University of Hull, United Kingdom
	University of Hull Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, United Kingdom
2011/08/01 - 2012/08/01	Research Assistant (Research)	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Química, Brazil
	Laboratório de Catálise em Química Ambiental (LaCQuA), Brazil

Teaching in Higher Education

	Category Host institution	Employer
2018/08/09 - 2018/12/06	Assistant (University Teacher)	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Brazil
	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Brazil

Others

	Category Host institution	Employer
2023/02/01 - Current	PhD Scholarship - 2022.12975.BD	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
	Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal (...)
2017/01/01 - 2022/12/23	Bioinformatics Scientist	Bio Bureau Biotecnologia, Brazil

2016/10/17 - 2017/01/30	Supervised internship	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Brazil
	Laboratório de Biologia Molecular Ambiental (BioMA), Brazil

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2012/02/01 - 2012/08/01	Synthesis and Characterization of Metal-Organic Hybrid Structures n/a Scientific Initiation Fellow Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Química, Brazil Laboratório de Catálise em Química Ambiental (LaCQuA), Brazil	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Fundação COPPETEC Concluded

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2020/05 - 2022/12	Control of golden mussel infestation through genetic induction of infertility - Phase 3 PD-10381-0419/2019 Researcher Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Bio Bureau Biotecnologia, Brazil	Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica Ongoing
2018/07/01 - 2020/06/01	Control of golden mussel infestation through genetic induction of infertility - Phase 2 PD-07514-0118/2018 Researcher Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Bio Bureau Biotecnologia, Brazil SENAI Rio, Brazil	Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica China Three Gorges Concluded
2018/04/01 - 2019/05/01	Control of golden mussel infestation through genetic induction of infertility PD-07514-0002/2017 Researcher Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Bio Bureau Biotecnologia, Brazil	Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica Concluded
2014/06/01 - 2016/06/30	Applied Research to Wastewater Treatment of Biodiesel Production Fundação Coppetec - Processo 2012/00323-1 Número SAP N4600.424892 Termo de Cooperação 0050.0082753.13.9 Research Fellow Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Química, Brazil Laboratório de Tecnologia Ambiental (LTA), Brazil	Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis (ANP) Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. Concluded

Outputs

Publications

Conference abstract	Afonso, Luana; do Amaral, Danielle Luciana Aurora Soares; Uliano-Silva, Marcela; Torres, André Luiz Quintanilha; Simas, Daniel Reis; de Freitas Rebelo, Mauro. "First Draft Genome of a Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Burseraceae reveals commercially-promising genes involved in terpenic oleoresins synthesis". Paper presented in 7th Brazilian Conference on Natural Product, Rio de Janeiro, 2019. Published
Conference poster	Afonso, Luana; Americo, Juliana Alves; Soares-Souza, Giordano Bruno; Torres, André Luiz Quintanilha; Wajsenzon, Inês Julia Ribas; de Freitas Rebelo, Mauro. "Transcriptomic Analysis of Male and Female Gonads of the Invasive Golden Mussel Limnoperna fortunei". Paper presented in 65th Brazilian Congress of Genetics, 2019.
Journal article	Sales, Adones; Afonso, Luana; Americo, Juliana Alves; de Freitas Rebelo, Mauro; Pastore, Glaucia Maria; Bicas, Juliano Lemos. Corresponding author: Sales, Adones. "Monoterpene biotransformation by Colletotrichum species". Biotechnology Letters 40 3 (2017): 561-567. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10529-017-2503-2. 10.1007/s10529-017-2503-2
Preprint	Juliana Alves Americo; Luana Tatiana Albuquerque Guerreiro; Tayssa Santos Gondim; Yasmin Rodrigues da Cunha; Inês Julia Ribas Wajsenzon; Luana Ferreira Afonso; Giordano Bruno Soares-Souza; Mauro de Freitas Rebelo. "Identification of suitable reference genes for qPCR expression analysis on the gonads of the invasive mussel Limnoperna fortunei". 2019. https://doi.org/10.1101/835447. 10.1101/835447 Luana Ferreira Afonso; Juliana Alves Americo; Giordano Bruno Soares-Souza; André Luiz Quintanilha Torres; Inês Julia Ribas Wajsenzon; Mauro de Freitas Rebelo. "Gonad transcriptome of golden musselLimnoperna fortuneireveals potential sex differentiation genes". 2019. https://doi.org/10.1101/818757. 10.1101/818757

Other

Other output

Identification of suitable reference genes for qPCR expression analysis on the gonads of the invasive mussel Limnoperna fortunei. The study identifies reference genes to perform gene expression analysis in the gonads of the invasive golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei) in South America. The stability of five candidate genes (RPS3, EF1a, HS6ST3B, NAPA, and UBE2F) in the gonads of male and female mussels was evaluated using two algorithms: Bestkeeper and Genorm.. 2019. Americo, Juliana Alves; Guerreiro, Luana Tatiana Albuquerque; Gondim, Tayssa Santos; da Cunha, Yasmin Rodrigues; Wajsenzon, Inês Julia Ribas; Afonso, Luana; Soares-Souza, Giordano Bruno; de Freitas Rebelo, Mauro.
Gonad transcriptome of golden mussel Limnoperna fortunei reveals potential sex differentiation genes. The study performs transcriptomic analysis of male and female golden mussel gonads and reveals differentially expressed transcripts in the species. In addition, families of genes relevant to sexual development in various organisms, from mammals to invertebrates, such as Dmrt ('doublesex and mab3-related-transcription factor'), Sox ('SRY-related HMG-box'), and Fox (' forkhead box') were identified.. 2019. Afonso, Luana; Americo, Juliana Alves; Soares-Souza, Giordano Bruno; Torres, André Luiz Quintanilha; Wajsenzon, Inês Julia Ribas; de Freitas Rebelo, Mauro.
First Draft Genome of a Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Burseraceae reveals commercially-promising genes involved in terpenic oleoresins synthesis. This study presents the first version of the genome of a tree endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Protium kleinii Cuatrec., the first characterization of its genes involved in terpene synthesis pathways and the composition of the volatile fraction of the resin of this plant.. 2018. Afonso, Luana; do Amaral, Danielle Luciana Aurora Soares; Uliano-Silva, Marcela; Torres, André Luiz Quintanilha; Simas, Daniel Reis; de Freitas Rebelo, Mauro. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/467720v1.
A sustainable synthetic biology approach for the control of the invasive golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei). The paper discusses the technical and economic feasibility of using a synthetic biology-based approach to control the invasive mussel Limnoperna fortunei in South American rivers and reservoirs.. 2018. de Freitas Rebelo, Mauro; Afonso, Luana; Americo, Juliana Alves; da Silva, Lucas; Neto, José Lavaquial Biosca; Dondero, Francesco; Zhang, Qiaoying. https://peerj.com/preprints/27164/.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2019/07/03	A sustainable synthetic biology approach for the control of the invasive golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei)	8th International conference on Energy and Sustainability Wessex University (Coimbra, Portugal)

Event organisation

	Event name Type of event (Role)	Institution / Organization
2015/01/19 - 2015/01/20	Assistance in organizing the event "Summer School in Environmental Engineering." (2015/01/19 - 2015/01/27) Other (Co-organisor)	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola Politécnica, Brazil Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Química Programa de Engenharia Ambiental, Brazil

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2021/09/22 - 2021/09/24	Participation in Workshop: Metagenomics in the Study of Microbial Communities. Conference	2nd Women in Bioinformatics & Data Science LA Conference
2021/03/01 - 2021/06/11	Online course entitled "Fundamentals of Python for Data Analysis" with theoretical classes and practical exercises. Content: python for data analysis, file handling, object-oriented programming, databases, machine learning. Other	Data Science Academy, Brazil
2020/02/02 - 2020/12/07	Participation in an entrepreneurship program lasting ten months, with weekly workshops, consulting, and business plan development for a biotechnology company in monitoring aquatic biodiversity from environmental DNA. Other	Shell Iniciativa Jovem 2020 Shell Iniciativa Jovem, Brazil
2019/03/16 - 2019/03/22	Course attendance with theoretical and practical classes and taking a test to complete the course. Content: Introduction to Linux and R, R for bioinformatics, workflow for transcriptome analysis. Other	Transcriptome and MicroRNA Analysis Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, Brazil
2018/12/03 - 2019	Participation in the 'Program for Acceleration and Internationalization of High Impact Businesses of the Bioeconomy Macrosegment' of Sebrae (Brazilian Service of Support to Micro and Small Enterprises) with a project to develop a platform for automatic curation of scientific articles, using knowledge of bioinformatics and artificial intelligence domains. Other	Prointer Bio 2018 Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas, Brazil
2018/10/30 - 2018/11/01	Lectures, poster presentations, and mini-courses on bioinformatics and computational biology attendance. Courses: Bioinformatics tools for high-performance sequencing. Metagenome analysis using the Galaxy platform. Symposium	11th Brazilian Symposium on Bioinformatics (BSB 2018) Sociedade Brasileira de Computacao, Brazil Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil Universidade Federal Fluminense Instituto de Computação, Brazil
2017/10/02 - 2017/10/06	Participation in the event with the work "Evaluation of treatment technologies for wastewater reuse in the biodiesel industry". Congress	29th Congress ABES/FENASAN 2017 Brazilian Association of Water, Sanitation and Environmental Engineering (ABES), Brazil
2014/09/15 - 2014/09/18	Participation in the "Professional of the Future" Program. Attendance in lectures and project presentations from the oil & gas and biofuels sector. Conference	Rio Oil & Gas 2014 Instituto Brasileiro de Petróleo e Gás (IBP), Brazil

Jury of academic degree

	Topic Role	Candidate name (Type of degree) Institution / Organization
2019/08/06	Participation in the evaluation panel of the final project to conclude a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, entitled 'Study of the Use of Blockchain Technology for Tracking Production Chains of Natural Products.' (Thesis) Arguer	Bárbara Shorchit Nogueira (Other) Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Química, Brazil

Course / Discipline taught

	Academic session	Degree Subject (Type)	Institution / Organization
2023/06/16 - Current	Presentation of the lecture "Deep Learning for protein sequence and structure" as part of the 3D-BioInfo-PT.		Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
2023/03/18 - Current	Presentation of the lecture "The importance of machine learning in structural biology" as part of the XII Edition of the Bioinformatics Open Days event.		Universidade do Minho Biblioteca Pública de Braga, Portugal
2018/08/09 - 2018/12/06	Biodiversity	Biophysics (Bachelor)	Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Brazil

Interview (tv / radio show)

	Program	Topic
2020/03/11 - 2020/03/11	Participation as a speaker at the 3rd Edition of the "Incredible Women" event on the theme of Technology, Innovation and Sustainability at Globosat in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.	Tecnologia, Inovação e Sustentabilidade

Distinctions

Other distinction

2019	English volunteer teacher Cidadão Pró-Mundo, Brazil
2017	Master's degree scholarship Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Brazil
2012	Visiting Undergraduate Student Scholarship Ministério da Ciência Tecnologia e Inovações, Brazil Ministério da Educação, Brazil Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil
2001	Full Academic Merit Scholarship Centro Educacional da Lagoa, Brazil