Where Ideas Grow
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., 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: 138] [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: 31] [IF: 11,6]
DOI: 10.7150/thno.33858 SCOPUS: 85074719039.


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: 91] [IF: 28,5]
DOI: 10.1038/s41592-018-0086-z SCOPUS: 85052313120.


Mereiter S., Magalhães A., Adamczyk B., Jin C., Almeida A., Drici L., Ibáñez-Vea M., Gomes C., Ferreira J.A., Afonso L.P., Santos L.L., Larsen M.R., Kolarich D., Karlsson N.G., Reis C.A.,
Glycomic analysis of gastric carcinoma cells discloses glycans as modulators of RON receptor tyrosine kinase activation in cancer. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - General Subjects1860(8):1795-1808, 2016. [Journal: Article] [CI: 46] [IF: 4,7]
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2015.12.016 SCOPUS: 84952685671.


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.


Silva M.L.S., Gutiérrez E., Rodríguez J.A., Gomes C., David L.,
Construction and validation of a Sambucus nigra biosensor for cancer-associated STn antigen. Biosensors and Bioelectronics57:254-261, 2014. [Journal: Article] [CI: 26] [IF: 6,4]
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2014.02.006 SCOPUS: 84896887425.


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: 66] [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: 88] [IF: 3,5]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066737 SCOPUS: 84879165131.


Marcos N.T., Bennett E.P., Gomes J., Magalhaes A., Gomes C., David L., Dar I., Jeanneau C., DeFrees S., Krustrup D., Vogel L.K., Kure E.H., Burchell J., Taylor-Papadimitriou J., Clausen H., Mandel U., Reis C.A.,
ST6GalNAc-I controls expression of sialyl-Tn antigen in gastrointestinal tissues. Frontiers in Bioscience - Elite3 E(4):1443-1455, 2011. [Journal: Article] [CI: 108]
SCOPUS: 80053586749.


Reis C.A., Osorio H., Silva L., Gomes C., David L.,
Alterations in glycosylation as biomarkers for cancer detection. Journal of Clinical Pathology63(4):322-329, 2010. [Journal: Review] [CI: 369] [IF: 2,5]
DOI: 10.1136/jcp.2009.071035 SCOPUS: 77950410995.