Where Ideas Grow
Celso Reis
Group leader

Celso A. Reis is the Head of the Glycobiology in Cancer group at i3S/Ipatimup, University of Porto, where he leads an international multidisciplinary team.  He has published 180 peer-reviewed papers, with over 10100 citations and with H-index of 47 (Scopus). His publications include papers in journals such as: Cancer Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Int. J. Cancer, Cancer Research, Nature Reviews in Cancer, PNAS, JBC, JACS, BBA, FEBS Lett, Molecular Cellular Proteomics, Oncogene, Cancer Letters, Mucosal Immunology, Cellular Immunology, Journal Clinical Investigation, among others.

Celso A. Reis research focus on the role of glycosylation in human cancer. He has addressed the molecular mechanisms controlling glycosylation in cancer cell biology, more specifically the role of glycosyltransferases regulating the biosynthesis of glycans in cancer. These included the role of sialyltransferases leading to the biosynthesis of terminal sialylated glycan antigens expressed by cancer cells, such as ST6GalNAc determining the aberrant expression of the simple O-glycan Sialyl-Tn antigen, and the ST3Gal-transferases and Fucosyltransferases controlling the expression of sialyl-Lewis antigens.

Celso A. Reis has contributed for determining the role of these glycosylation modifications and the consequences to cancer cell biology, including the mechanisms regulating cancer invasion, metastasis and tumour glycoimmunology. CR has also addressed the application of glycoconjugates as biomarkers in human cancer and pre-neoplastic lesions, and the application of novel unique monoclonal antibodies to clinical samples.

Currently, Celso A. Reis aims to develop novel strategies to detect and characterize cancer, and to be able to improve cancer treatment based on the identification of the key glycans controlling cancer cell communication, glycans that can be used as markers for cancer patient stratification, as well as glycans and glycoconjugate that can be used as novel targets in cancer therapy.

Selected Publications

Mereiter S., Balmaña M., Campos D., Gomes J., Reis C.A.,
Glycosylation in the Era of Cancer-Targeted Therapy: Where Are We Heading?. Cancer Cell36(1):6-16, 2019. [Journal: Review] [CI: 290] [IF: 26,6]
DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2019.06.006 SCOPUS: 85067650826.


Duarte H.O., Rodrigues J.G., Gomes C., Hensbergen P.J., Ederveen A.L.H., de Ru A.H., Mereiter S., Polónia A., Fernandes E., Ferreira J.A., van Veelen P.A., Santos L.L., Wuhrer M., Gomes J., Reis C.A.,
ST6Gal1 targets the ectodomain of ErbB2 in a site-specific manner and regulates gastric cancer cell sensitivity to trastuzumab. Oncogene40(21):3719-3733, 2021. [Journal: Article] [CI: 25] [IF: 8,8]
DOI: 10.1038/s41388-021-01801-w SCOPUS: 85105357480.


Rodrigues J.G., Duarte H.O., Gomes C., Balmaña M., Martins Á.M., Hensbergen P.J., de Ru A.H., Lima J., Albergaria A., van Veelen P.A., Wuhrer M., Gomes J., Reis C.A.,
Terminal a2,6-sialylation of epidermal growth factor receptor modulates antibody therapy response of colorectal cancer cells. Cellular Oncology44(4):835-850, 2021. [Journal: Article] [CI: 17] [IF: 7,1]
DOI: 10.1007/s13402-021-00606-z SCOPUS: 85104515471.


Martins Á.M., Lopes T.M., Diniz F., Pires J., Osório H., Pinto F., Freitas D., Reis C.A.,
Differential Protein and Glycan Packaging into Extracellular Vesicles in Response to 3D Gastric Cancer Cellular Organization. Advanced Science:, 2023. [Journal: Article] [CI: 1] [IF: 15,1 (*)]
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202300588 SCOPUS: 85162202761.


Freitas D., Campos D., Gomes J., Pinto F., Macedo J.A., Matos R., Mereiter S., Pinto M.T., Polónia A., Gartner F., Magalhães A., Reis C.A.,
O-glycans truncation modulates gastric cancer cell signaling and transcription leading to a more aggressive phenotype. EBioMedicine40:349-362, 2019. [Journal: Article] [CI: 57] [IF: 5,7]
DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.01.017 SCOPUS: 85060115866.


Freitas D., Balmaña M., Poças J., Campos D., Osório H., Konstantinidi A., Vakhrushev S.Y., Magalhães A., Reis C.A.,
Different isolation approaches lead to diverse glycosylated extracellular vesicle populations. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles8(1):, 2019. [Journal: Article] [CI: 71] [IF: 15]
DOI: 10.1080/20013078.2019.1621131 SCOPUS: 85074725417.


Zhang H., Freitas D., Kim H.S., Fabijanic K., Li Z., Chen H., Mark M.T., Molina H., Martin A.B., Bojmar L., Fang J., Rampersaud S., Hoshino A., Matei I., Kenific C.M., Nakajima M., Mutvei A.P., Sansone P., Buehring W., Wang H., Jimenez J.P., Cohen-Gould L., Paknejad N., Brendel M., Manova-Todorova K., Magalhães A., Ferreira J.A., Osório H., Silva A.M., Massey A., Cubillos-Ruiz J.R., Galletti G., Giannakakou P., Cuervo A.M., Blenis J., Schwartz R., Brady M.S., Peinado H., Bromberg J., Matsui H., Reis C.A., Lyden D.,
Identification of distinct nanoparticles and subsets of extracellular vesicles by asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation. Nature Cell Biology20(3):332-343, 2018. [Journal: Article] [CI: 1010] [IF: 17,7]
DOI: 10.1038/s41556-018-0040-4 SCOPUS: 85042193942.


Magalhães A., Duarte H.O., Reis C.A.,
Aberrant Glycosylation in Cancer: A Novel Molecular Mechanism Controlling Metastasis. Cancer Cell31(6):733-735, 2017. [Journal: Short Survey] [CI: 108] [IF: 22,8]
DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2017.05.012 SCOPUS: 85020642808.


Marcos N.T., Pinho S., Grandela C., Cruz A., Samyn-Petit B., Harduin-Lepers A., Almeida R., Silva F., Morais V., Costa J., Kihlberg J., Clausen H., Reis C.A.,
Role of the human ST6GalNAc-I and ST6GalNAc-II in the synthesis of the cancer-associated Sialyl-Tn antigen. Cancer Research64(19):7050-7057, 2004. [Journal: Article] [CI: 192] [IF: 7,7]
DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-04-1921 SCOPUS: 4944265751.


Marcos N.T., Magalhães A., Ferreira B., Oliveira M.J., Carvalho A.S., Mendes N., Gilmartin T., Head S.R., Figueiredo C., David L., Santos-Silva F., Reis C.A.,
Helicobacter pylori induces ß3GnT5 in human gastric cell lines, modulating expression of the SabA ligand sialyl-Lewis x. Journal of Clinical Investigation118(6):2325-2336, 2008. [Journal: Article] [CI: 108] [IF: 16,6]
DOI: 10.1172/JCI34324 SCOPUS: 45649085812.


Campos D., Freitas D., Gomes J., Magalhães A., Steentoft C., Gomes C., Vester-Christensen M.B., Ferreira J.A., Afonso L.P., Santos L.L., De Sousa J.P., Mandel U., Clausen H., Vakhrushev S.Y., Reis C.A.,
Probing the O-glycoproteome of gastric cancer cell lines for biomarker discovery. Molecular and Cellular Proteomics14(6):1616-1629, 2015. [Journal: Article] [CI: 87] [IF: 5,9]
DOI: 10.1074/mcp.M114.046862 SCOPUS: 84930470850.


Pinho S.S., Reis C.A.,
Glycosylation in cancer: Mechanisms and clinical implications. Nature Reviews Cancer15(9):540-555, 2015. [Journal: Review] [CI: 1910] [IF: 34,2]
DOI: 10.1038/nrc3982 SCOPUS: 84940449986.