Joana Margarida Silva

  • Tau
  • Stress, Alzheimer's Disease
  • Down syndrome
  • Neurodegneration
  • synaptic plasticity
  • RNA metabolism
  • RNA granules
  • Molecular Biology
  • Behavior

Joana Margarida Silva (PhD) graduated in Applied Biology in 2010, at the School of Sciences – University of Minho, followed by MSc in Molecular Genetics in 2012. She obtained in 2017 her PhD in Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, University of Minho.
She received a post-doc fellowship by Canon Foundation (2018), extended her international training by working at the lab of Prof Takashima (Imperial University, Japan), a well-known expert in the field of Tau biology, where she further monitored different parameters of Tau role in nucleus related to RBPs. In 2021 she was granted a Junior Research by FCT to develop her own research line on understanding the role of RNA metabolism and the pathological load of RNA granules in stress-driven brain pathologies such as AD and depression. She is currently supervising 2 MSc and 3 graduate students (e.g. ERASMUS). Her publication list includes high impact factor publications while her research achievements have been independently recognized by research foundations prizes, e.g. AD/PD Junior faculty Award 2017.
Joana is a member of the International Society for Neurochemistry and the Portuguese Society of Neuroscience.

Joana Margarida Silva

  • Tau
  • Stress, Alzheimer's Disease
  • Down syndrome
  • Neurodegneration
  • synaptic plasticity
  • RNA metabolism
  • RNA granules
  • Molecular Biology
  • Behavior

Joana Margarida Silva (PhD) graduated in Applied Biology in 2010, at the School of Sciences – University of Minho, followed by MSc in Molecular Genetics in 2012. She obtained in 2017 her PhD in Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, University of Minho.
She received a post-doc fellowship by Canon Foundation (2018), extended her international training by working at the lab of Prof Takashima (Imperial University, Japan), a well-known expert in the field of Tau biology, where she further monitored different parameters of Tau role in nucleus related to RBPs. In 2021 she was granted a Junior Research by FCT to develop her own research line on understanding the role of RNA metabolism and the pathological load of RNA granules in stress-driven brain pathologies such as AD and depression. She is currently supervising 2 MSc and 3 graduate students (e.g. ERASMUS). Her publication list includes high impact factor publications while her research achievements have been independently recognized by research foundations prizes, e.g. AD/PD Junior faculty Award 2017.
Joana is a member of the International Society for Neurochemistry and the Portuguese Society of Neuroscience.

Scientific Highlights

Publications:
1. Monteiro-Fernandes D, Silva JM, Soares-Cunha C, Dalla C, Kokras N, François A, Billiras R, Bretin S, Sousa N, Sotiropoulos I, “ Allosteric modulation of AMPA receptors counteracts Tau-related excitotoxic synaptic signaling and memory deficits in Stress and Aβ-evoked hippocampal pathology”, Molecular Psychiatry 2019;
2. Silva JM, Rodrigues S, Marques MB, Gomes P, Neves-Carvalho A, Soares-Cunha C, Takashima A, Ludovico P, Takashima A, Wolozin B, Sousa N, Sotiropoulos I, “Dysregulation of autophagy and stress granule-related proteins in stress-driven Tau pathology”, Cell Death & Differentiation August 2019. DOI:10.1038/s41418-018-0217-1;
3. Sotiropoulos I*, Galas MC*, Silva JM, Skoulakis E, Wegmann S, Maina M, Blum D, Sayas CL, Mandelkow EM, Mandelkow E, Spillantini MG, Sousa N, Avila J, Medina M, Mudher A, Bueé L, “Atypical, non-standard functions of the microtubule associated Tau protein”, Acta Neuropathological Communications 2018, DOI: 10.1186/s40478-017-0489-6;
4. Silva J*, Pinheiro S*, Mota C, Vaz-Silva J, Veloso A, Pinto V, Sousa N, Cerqueira J, Sotiropoulos I “Tau mislocation in glucocorticoid-triggered hippocampal pathology.”, Molecular Neurobiology, September 2015, DOI: 10.1007/s12035-015-9356-2;
5. Sotiropoulos I, Silva J, Kimura T., Rodrigues AJ, Costa P, Almeida OFX, Sousa N, Takashima A. “Female hippocampus vulnerability to environmental stress as precipitating factor of Tau aggregation pathology”, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2015;43(3):763-74. DOI: 10.3233/JAD-140693

Awards:
1. FCT Contract for Junior Researcher 2021.00204.CEECCIND – “The unique biology of RNA-granules in vulnerability and treatment of brain pathologies”, awarded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science
2. ICVS-INL innovative ideas challenge – Winning project on “WINERVED – Wireless NEural Repair Via Electric and Drug delivery” – financial support of €20.000
3. 2018 Canon Foundation Fellowship, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), Braga, Portugal/Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan
4. AD/PD Junior Faculty Award, 13th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease 2017, Vienna, Austria
5. FCT PhD fellowship SFRH/BD/88932/2012 – “Tau (mal)function in brain plasticity and pathology – a gateway beyond Alzheimer’s Disease”, awarded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science

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