About
Joana Gaifem holds a degree in Biology (2009, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto) and a Master in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (2011, ICBAS, University of Porto). In 2012, she was a research fellow at the Bioengineering and Synthetic Microbiology Group at IBMC (Porto) in a project focused in the secondary metabolism of cyanobacteria. Between April 2013 and December 2014 she worked at the ICVS as a research fellow in a FCT/Harvard Medical School funded project to study the evasion mechanisms of host immune response by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Currently, Joana is developing her PhD project (PhDOC Program) and she is focused on understanding the impact of metabolic alterations in innate immune cells, specifically in clarifying the metabolic requirements during monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation in the gut mucosa and the relevance in intestinal pathology such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Mesquita I, Varela P, Belinha A, Gaifem J, Laforge M, Vergnes B, Estaquier J, Silvestre R. "Exploring NAD+ metabolism in host-pathogen interactions". Cell Mol Life Sci (in press).
Cruz A, Ludovico P, Torrado E, Gama JB, Sousa J, Gaifem J, Appelberg R, Rodrigues F, Cooper AM, Pedrosa J, Saraiva M, Castro AG. "IL-17A promotes intracellular growth of Mycobacterium by inhibiting apoptosis of infected macrophages". Front. Immunol. 6:498.