creating a
healthier future
Catarina Gomes
Associate Researcher

Catarina holds a PhD in Biomedicine (2013) from the Faculty of Medicine University of Porto. Her PhD research was carried at Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto (IPATIMUP), under the supervision of Dr. Celso A. Reis, with an international stay at the Center of Biochemistry, Cologne, Germany. Catarina performed a PostDoc at a world-leading laboratory in glycobiology, the Copenhagen Centre for Glycomics (CCG - Denmark), supervised by Prof. Dr. Henrik Clausen. At CCG Catarina´s made part of a team that developed a comprehensive library of gRNAs targeting all known glycoenzymes (Glycobiology 2018, Editor’s choice, and commercially available at Addgene), also she acquired solid expertise in glycosylation mechanisms and unique skills in relevant genetically engineered cell-based models of disease (Nature Methods 2018). Currently, Catarina is an Assistant Researcher at the Glycobiology in Cancer Group at i3S under the FCT Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus (2022.04678.CEECIND) and a principal investigator of projects focused on new strategies for cancer drug discovery based on aberrant glycans expression in cancer. During her researcher career, Catarina enroll in relevant national and international courses such as Advanced Molecular Technology and Instrumentation for Proteome Analyses (Uppsala, Sweden, 2015), summer schools of Advanced Science on Mass Spectrometry-based Proteomics (Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2017) and course in laboratory animal science Felasa C (Porto, Portugal, 2018). Catarina has been participating in several research projects financed both by national and international institutions. Also, Catarina has been participating in juries of MSc and PhD academic degrees, acting as ah-hoc reviewer for international peer-reviewed journals and expert evaluator of international research programs (e.g. Dioscuri Programme from Max Planck Society). Since 2018, Catarina has been focused in establishing her new research line at i3S on the development of new strategies for cancer drug discovery based on cancer-associated alterations of glycosylation. For that, she has been successful in secure financial support, 2018 FCT funded project (225.417€, PTDC/MED-QUI/29780/2017) and 2021 FCT funded project (249.810€, PTDC/MED-QUI/2335/2021) that permitted the establishment of a motivated research team, currently composed by a hired PostDoc, 2 PhD students (1 as supervisor and 1 as cosupervisor), 2 MSc students. Catarina future ambition is to perform investigation with potential to translate into clinically meaningful data and improving cancer patient’s lives.

Selected Publications

Costa A.F., Senra E., Faria-Ramos I., Teixeira A., Morais J., Pacheco M., Reis C.A., Gomes C.
ST3GalIV drives SLeX biosynthesis in gastrointestinal cancer cells and associates with cancer cell motility. Glycoconjugate Journal40(4):421-433, 2023. [Journal: Article] [CI: 1] [IF: 2.7]
DOI: 10.1007/s10719-023-10113-y SCOPUS: 85153090571

Poças J., Marques C., Gomes C., Otake A.H., Pinto F., Ferreira M., Silva T., Faria-Ramos I., Matos R., Ribeiro A.R., Senra E., Cavadas B., Batista S., Maia J., Macedo J.A., Lima L., Afonso L.P., Ferreira J.A., Santos L.L., Polónia A., Osório H., Belting M., Reis C.A., Costa-Silva B., Magalhães A.
Syndecan-4 is a maestro of gastric cancer cell invasion and communication that underscores poor survival. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America120(20):, 2023. [Journal: Article] [CI: 15] [IF: 9.4]
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2214853120 SCOPUS: 85158135443

Marques C., Poças J., Gomes C., Faria-Ramos I., Reis C.A., Vivès R.R., Magalhães A.
Glycosyltransferases EXTL2 and EXTL3 cellular balance dictates heparan sulfate biosynthesis and shapes gastric cancer cell motility and invasion. Journal of Biological Chemistry298(11):, 2022. [Journal: Article] [CI: 6] [IF: 4,8]
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102546 SCOPUS: 85142940251

Costa A.F., Campos D., Reis C.A., Gomes C.
Targeting Glycosylation: A New Road for Cancer Drug Discovery. Trends in Cancer6(9):757-766, 2020. [Journal: Review] [CI: 177] [IF: 14,2]
DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2020.04.002 SCOPUS: 85084227209

Gomes C., Almeida A., Barreira A., Calheiros J., Pinto F., Abrantes R., Costa A., Polonia A., Campos D., Osório H., Sousa H., Pinto-De-Sousa J., Kolarich D., Reis C.A.
Carcinoembryonic antigen carrying SLeX as a new biomarker of more aggressive gastric carcinomas. Theranostics9(24):7431-7446, 2020. [Journal: Article] [CI: 41] [IF: 11,6]
DOI: 10.7150/thno.33858 SCOPUS: 85074719039

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: 34] [IF: 8,8]
DOI: 10.1038/s41388-021-01801-w SCOPUS: 85105357480

Chen Y.H., Narimatsu Y., Clausen T.M., Gomes C., Karlsson R., Steentoft C., Spliid C.B., Gustavsson T., Salanti A., Persson A., Malmström A., Willén D., Ellervik U., Bennett E.P., Mao Y., Clausen H., Yang Z.
The GAGOme: a cell-based library of displayed glycosaminoglycans. Nature Methods15(11):881-888, 2018. [Journal: Article] [CI: 108] [IF: 28,5]
DOI: 10.1038/s41592-018-0086-z SCOPUS: 85052313120

Narimatsu Y., Joshi H.J., Yang Z., Gomes C., Chen Y.H., Lorenzetti F.C., Furukawa S., Schjoldager K.T., Hansen L., Clausen H., Bennett E.P., Wandall H.H.
A validated gRNA library for CRISPR/Cas9 targeting of the human glycosyltransferase genome. Glycobiology28(5):295-305, 2018. [Journal: Article] [CI: 66] [IF: 4,2]
DOI: 10.1093/glycob/cwx101 SCOPUS: 85045120587

Gomes C., Almeida A., Ferreira J.A., Silva L., Santos-Sousa H., Pinto-De-Sousa J., Santos L.L., Amado F., Schwientek T., Levery S.B., Mandel U., Clausen H., David L., Reis C.A., Osório H.
Glycoproteomic analysis of serum from patients with gastric precancerous lesions. Journal of Proteome Research12(3):1454-1466, 2013. [Journal: Article] [CI: 68] [IF: 5]
DOI: 10.1021/pr301112x SCOPUS: 84874635340

Gomes C., Osório H., Pinto M.T., Campos D., Oliveira M.J., Reis C.A.
Expression of ST3GAL4 Leads to SLex Expression and Induces c-Met Activation and an Invasive Phenotype in Gastric Carcinoma Cells. PLoS ONE8(6):, 2013. [Journal: Article] [CI: 97] [IF: 3,5]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066737 SCOPUS: 84879165131