Immunobiology of Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases

The immune system is represented by a complex network of organs, tissues, cells, and molecules that evolved to protect the host against infections. However, it influences much more than host defense: it is central for repair and maintenance of tissue homeostasis, it has crucial roles in immune surveillance, it inflicts damage in the context of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, and it affects host metabolism, development, and aging. Recent discoveries are fostering novel host-directed medicine approaches that harness the immune response to combat inflammation and infection, and help patients manage both acute and chronic immune-mediated diseases.
The overarching goal of the Immunobiology of Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases (i3D) team is to define the cellular and molecular networks underlying cell and tissue damage involved in the pathogenesis of current and emerging diseases caused by infectious agents and harmful inflammation. Our team encompasses a multidisciplinary group of basic and translational scientists, clinical experts, and young researchers with expertise at the crossroads of immunology, genetics, and metabolism, and that resorts to advanced systems biology approaches using cellular, micro-engineered tissue, and animal models of disease, and human patients enrolled in national and international consortia.
Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing the network of interactions between inflammation, infection and the immune system is expected to contribute to innovative and personalized diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for a wide range of current and emerging immune-mediated diseases.

Team Members

Team Members

agostinho carvalho

Principal Investigator
Team Coordinator

egídio torrado

Principal Investigator

ricardo silvestre

Principal Investigator

António G. Castro

Senior Researcher

fernando rodrigues

Senior Researcher

cristina cunha

Assistant Researcher

Maria João Peixoto

Postdoctoral Researcher

relber gonçales

Postdoctoral Researcher

Rita Silva-Gomes

Postdoctoral Researcher

sandra costa

Affiliated Researcher

ana mendes-frias

PhD Student

daniela antunes

PhD Student

marta araújo

PhD Student

raquel fernandes

PhD Student

adrian barnutiu

MSc Student

ana baptista

MSc Student

sónia carvalho

MSc Student

inês caldeira

Research Technician

Marcela Oliveira

Research Technician

Projects

Selected Research Outputs

Hérivaux A, Willis JR, Mercier T, Lagrou K, Gonçalves SM, Gonçales RA, Maertens J, Carvalho A, Gabaldón T, Cunha C. “Lung microbiota predict invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and its outcome in immunocompromised patients”. Thorax. 2022; epub ahead of print

Ferreira C, Estaquier J, Silvestre R. Immune-metabolic interactions between Leishmania and macrophage host. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 2021 63:231-237.

Ferreira CM, Barbosa AM, Barreira-Silva P, Silvestre R, Cunha C, Carvalho A, Rodrigues F, Correia-Neves M, Castro AG, Torrado E. Early IL-10 promotes vasculature-associated CD4+ T cells unable to control Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. JCI Insight. 2021 Nov 8;6(21):e150060. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.150060.

Gonçalves SM, Antunes D, Leite L, Mercier T, Horst RT, Vieira J, Espada E, Pinho Vaz C, Branca R, Campilho F, Freitas F, Ligeiro D, Marques A, van de Veerdonk FL, Joosten LAB, Lagrou K, Maertens J, Netea MG, Lacerda JF, Campos A Jr, Cunha C, Carvalho A. “Genetic variation in PFKFB3 impairs antifungal immunometabolic responses and predisposes to invasive pulmonary aspergillosis”. mBio. 2021; 12(3):e0036921

Gonçales RA, Ricci-Azevedo R, Vieira VCS, Fernandes FF, Thomaz SMO, Carvalho A, Vendruscolo PE, Cunha C, Roque-Barreira MC, Rodrigues F. “Paracoccin overexpression in Paracoccidioides brasiliensis enhances fungal virulence by remodeling chitin properties of the cell wall”. J Infect Dis. 2021; 224(1):164-174

Santa Cruz A, Mendes-Frias A, Oliveira AI, Dias L, Matos AR, Carvalho A, Capela C, Pedrosa J, Castro AG, Silvestre R. "Interleukin-6 Is a Biomarker for the Development of Fatal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Pneumonia". Front Immunol. 2021 Feb 18;12:613422

Mesquita I, Ferreira C, Moreira D, Kluck GEG, Barbosa AM, Torrado E, Dinis-Oliveira RJ, Gonçalves LG, Beauparlant CJ, Droit A, Berod L, Sparwasser T, Bodhale N, Saha B, Rodrigues F, Cunha C, Carvalho A, Castro AG, Estaquier J, Silvestre R. The Absence of HIF-1α Increases Susceptibility to Leishmania donovani Infection via Activation of BNIP3/mTOR/SREBP-1c Axis. Cell Rep. 2020 Mar 24;30(12):4052-4064.e7

Gonçalves SM, Duarte-Oliveira C, Campos CF, Aimanianda V, Ter Horst R, Leite L, Mercier T, Pereira P, Fernández-García M, Antunes D, Rodrigues CS, Barbosa-Matos C, Gaifem J, Mesquita I, Marques A, Osório NS, Torrado E, Rodrigues F, Costa S, Joosten LA, Lagrou K, Maertens J, Lacerda JF, Campos A Jr, Brown GD, Brakhage AA, Barbas C, Silvestre R, van de Veerdonk FL, Chamilos G, Netea MG, Latgé JP, Cunha C, Carvalho A. “Phagosomal removal of fungal melanin reprograms macrophage metabolism to promote antifungal immunity”. Nat Commun. 2020; 11(1):2282

Resende M, Ferreira CM, Barbosa AM, Cardoso MS, Sousa J, Saraiva M, Castro AG, Appelberg R, Torrado E. Myeloid HIF-1α regulates pulmonary inflammation during experimental Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Immunology. 2020 Jan;159(1):121-129. doi: 10.1111/imm.13131. Epub 2019 Nov 10.

Campos CF, Leite L, Pereira P, Pinho Vaz C, Branca R, Campilho F, Freitas F, Ligeiro D, Marques A, Torrado E, Silvestre R, Lacerda JF, Campos A Jr, Cunha C, Carvalho A. “PTX3 polymorphisms influence cytomegalovirus reactivation after stem-cell transplantation”. Front Immunol. 2019; 10:88