RS received her PhD in Medicine from the Medical Faculty of Porto in 1995. RS PhD project aimed to study the role of diverse oncogenes and tumour supressor genes in the progression of gastric cancer and identified, for the first time, microsatellite instability (MSI) and MMR repair alterations as a particular molecular subtype of gastric cancer. This work brought RS international recognition in the field of genetics of gastric cancer and she is considered an international expert in stomach related diseases. Further, she studied in colorectal cancer the clinical importance of MSI, target genes and oncogenic mutations and established a model of development of BRAF and KRAS associated colorectal carcinomas.
In the setting of highly invasive cancer, namely stomach cancer, RS has been involved in determining the interactions and signalling of invasive cancer cells to promote cancer invasion and metastization. For that purpose, she uses the paradigm model of isolated invasion associated to HDGC (hereditary diffuse gastric cancer) which is mediated by loss of e-cadherin function, a key epithelial marker that is frequently lost in invasive cancer cells with high potential for distant metastization. In the context of HDGC is an international reference and she is responsible to serve the International Gastric Cancer Linkage Consortium for silico and in vitro functional assays to assess the pathogenic role of all CDH1 germline missense mutations detected worldwide (from New Zeeland, Europe, Asia to North and South America). Due to the work developed along the years RS is regarded the worldwide expert on cancer cell invasion, namely in gastric and in colon cancer. Further, due to the international recognition in hereditary tumours of the stomach RS was invited to become a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the American association that supports families with gastric cancer (http://www.nostomachforcancer.org/about-us/scientific-advisory-council).
Selected Publications
DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(14)71016-2 SCOPUS: 84921774175.
Figueiredo J., Söderberg O., Simões-Correia J., Grannas K., Suriano G., Seruca R.,
DOI: 10.1038/ejhg.2012.159 SCOPUS: 84874105136.
Caldeira J., Figueiredo J., Brás-Pereira C., Carneiro P., Moreira A.M., Pinto M.T., Relvas J.B., Carneiro F., Barbosa M., Casares F., Janody F., Seruca R.,
DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddv312 SCOPUS: 84943762566.
Vogelaar I.P., Figueiredo J., Van rooij I.A.L.M., Simões-correia J., Van der post R.S., Melo S., Seruca R., Carels C.E.L., Ligtenberg M.J.L., Hoogerbrugge N.,
DOI: 10.1093/hmg/dds497 SCOPUS: 84873422090.
Simões-Correia J., Figueiredo J., Lopes R., Stricher F., Oliveira C., Serrano L., Seruca R.,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033783 SCOPUS: 84858685771.
Oliveira C., Sousa S., Pinheiro H., Karam R., Bordeira-Carriço R., Senz J., Kaurah P., Carvalho J., Pereira R., Gusmão L., Wen X., Cipriano M.A., Yokota J., Carneiro F., Huntsman D., Seruca R.,
DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2009.02.065 SCOPUS: 66149108352.
Simões-Correia J., Figueiredo J., Oliveira C., van Hengel J., Seruca R., van Roy F., Suriano G.,
DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddn249 SCOPUS: 54949124637.
Suriano G., Seixas S., Rocha J., Seruca R.,
DOI: 10.1007/s00109-006-0091-z SCOPUS: 34249980933.
Frebourg T., Oliveira C., Hochain P., Karam R., Manouvrier S., Graziadio C., Vekemans M., Hartmann A., Baert-Desurmont S., Alexandre C., Lejeune Dumoulin S., Marroni C., Martin C., Castedo S., Lovett M., Winston J., Machado J.C., Attie T., Jabs E.W., Cai J., Pellerin P., Triboulet J.P., Scotte M., Le Pessot F., Hedouin A., Carneiro F., Blayau M., Seruca R.,
DOI: 10.1136/jmg.2005.031385 SCOPUS: 32944469779.
Suriano G., Oliveira C., Ferreira P., Machado J.C., Bordin M.C., De Wever O., Bruyneel E.A., Moguilevsky N., Grehan N., Porter T.R., Richards F.M., Hruban R.H., Roviello F., Huntsman D., Mareel M., Carneiro F., Caldas C., Seruca R.,
DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddg048 SCOPUS: 0037342636.