creating a
healthier future
Inês Alves
Junior Researcher

Inês Alves graduated in Biochemistry by the University of Aveiro in 2014. Right after finishing her Master studies, IA was awarded with na Albert Renolds Travel Grant from European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes to visit Borsheim’s lab at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, in Little Rock, USA. Back to Portugal, IA worked at the Human Genomics lab from National Institute of Health Ricardo Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal in some projects related with chromosomal abnormalities. In 2016, IA decided to move to Porto, joining Pinho’s lab at i3S as a Research fellow in a project focused on the role of glycans in inflammatory Bowel disease. In 2018, IA won a FCT individual PhD Fellowship under the supervision of Salomé Pinho with an innovative project on the role of glycans in autoimmunity with the cosupervison of António Marinho (Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto) and Gabriel Rabinovich (Instituto de Biologia y Medicina Experimental, Argentina). During PhD project, IA identified an abnormal exposure of microbial-associated glycans in kidney from lupus nephritis (LN) patients, a new glycobiomarker that predicts the development of chronic kidney disease. Her findings were recognized by Pfizer Award 2021 and with a national Prize in autoimmunity research sponsored by the National Group of autoimmunity studies (NEDAI) and National Society of Internal Medicine (SPMI). During the last years, IA has been trained by different laboratories in order to learn and develop different techniques, acquiring unique skills in the field of GlycoImmunology such as in Mass Spectrometry Imaging (with Manfred Wuhrer at CPM Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), NL), chemical synthesis (with Javier Rojo Seville,cicCartuja,Spain). IA was awarded with an EMBO Scientific Exchange grant in 2021 in order to develop a novel technique of antigen-specific B cell isolation and culture from SLE patients at Rheumatology lab from LUMC. In 2023 IA was awarded with 2023 Maria de Sousa Prize to identify and characterize the pathogenicity of anti-glycan autoantibodies in autoimmune diseases. IA has been also involved in several international projects, namely as member of the consortium funded by the USA Department of Defense grant (GLYCOME PREDICT), and more recently European-funded projects, such as GlycanTrigger (Horizon Europe) and GlycanSwitch (ERC Synergy). Moreover, IA is currently the Co-PI of 2022 Lupus Innovation Award from Lupus Research Alliance and 2024 ESCI Exploratory Research Grant. At Immunology, Cancer and Glycomedicine group IA was awarded with an FCT-funded CEEC Junior Research position devoted to consolidate her line of research in the group, by studying the role of glycosylation in autoimmunity, using Systemic Lupus Erythematosus as a disease model system.

Selected Publications

Alves I., Santos-Pereira B., Dalebout H., Santos S., Vicente M.M., Campar A., Thepaut M., Fieschi F., Strahl S., Boyaval F., Vizcaíno R., Silva R., Holst-Bernal S., Vasconcelos C., Santos L., Wuhrer M., Marinho A., Heijs B., Pinho S.S.
Protein Mannosylation as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker of Lupus Nephritis: An Unusual Glycan Neoepitope in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Arthritis and Rheumatology73(11):2069-2077, 2021. [Journal: Article] [CI: 20] [IF: 15,5]
DOI: 10.1002/art.41768 SCOPUS: 85114632866

Alves I., Vicente M.M., Gaifem J., Fernandes Â., Dias A.M., Rodrigues C.S., Oliveira J.C., Seixas N., Malheiro L., Abreu M.A., Castro R.S., Pinho S.S.
SARS-CoV-2 Infection drives a glycan switch of peripheral T cells at diagnosis. Journal of Immunology207(6):1591-1598, 2021. [Journal: Article] [CI: 7] [IF: 5,4]
DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.2100131 SCOPUS: 85114625464

Alves I., Fernandes Â., Santos-Pereira B., Azevedo C.M., Pinho S.S.
Glycans as a key factor in self and nonself discrimination: impact on the breach of immune tolerance. FEBS Letters596(12):1485-1502, 2022. [Journal: Review] [CI: 22] [IF: 3,5]
DOI: 10.1002/1873-3468.14347 SCOPUS: 85128204331

Pereira M.S., Alves I., Vicente M., Campar A., Silva M.C., Padrão N.A., Pinto V., Fernandes Å., Dias A.M., Pinho S.S.
Glycans as key checkpoints of T cell activity and function. Frontiers in Immunology9(NOV):, 2018. [Journal: Review] [CI: 107] [IF: 4,7]
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02754 SCOPUS: 85057432575

Alves I., Vicente M.M., Dias A.M., Gaifem J., Rodrigues C., Campar A., Pinho S.S.
The Role of Glycosylation in Inflammatory Diseases. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology1325:265-283, 2021. [Book Series: Book Chapter] [CI: 7] [IF: 3,7]
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-70115-4_13 SCOPUS: 85115034497

Mortha A., Remark R., Del Valle D.M., Chuang L.S., Chai Z., Alves I., Azevedo C., Gaifem J., Martin J., Petralia F., Tuballes K., Barcessat V., Tai S.L., Huang H.H., Laface I., Jerez Y.A., Boschetti G., Villaverde N., Wang M.D., Korie U.M., Murray J., Choung R.S., Sato T., Laird R.M., Plevy S., Rahman A., Torres J., Porter C., Riddle M.S., Kenigsberg E., Pinho S.S., Cho J.H., Merad M., Colombel J.F., Gnjatic S.
Neutralizing Anti-Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor Autoantibodies Recognize Post-Translational Glycosylations on Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor Years Before Diagnosis and Predict Complicated Crohn's Disease. Gastroenterology163(3):659-670, 2022. [Journal: Article] [CI: 31] [IF: 29,4]
DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2022.05.029 SCOPUS: 85134834619

Dias A.M., Correia A., Pereira M.S., Almeida C.R., Alves I., Pinto V., Catarino T.A., Mendes N., Leander M., Teresa Oliva-Teles M., Maia L., Delerue-Matos C., Taniguchi N., Lima M., Pedroto I., Marcos-Pinto R., Lago P., Reis C.A., Vilanova M., Pinho S.S.
Metabolic control of T cell immune response through glycans in inflammatory bowel disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America115(20):E4651-E4660, 2018. [Journal: Article] [CI: 81] [IF: 9,6]
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1720409115 SCOPUS: 85046964805

Dias A.M., Pereira M.S., Padrão N.A., Alves I., Marcos-Pinto R., Lago P., Pinho S.S.
Glycans as critical regulators of gut immunity in homeostasis and disease. Cellular Immunology333:9-18, 2018. [Journal: Article] [CI: 26] [IF: 3,3]
DOI: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2018.07.007 SCOPUS: 85050201106

Petrović T., Alves I., Bugada D., Pascual J., Vučković F., Skelin A., Gaifem J., Villar-Garcia J., Vicente M.M., Fernandes A., Dias A.M., Kurolt I.C., Markotić A., Primorac D., Soares A., Malheiro L., Trbojević-Akmačić I., Abreu M., Castro R.S.E., Bettinelli S., Callegaro A., Arosio M., Sangiorgio L., Lorini L.F., Castells X., Horcajada J.P., Pinho S.S., Allegri M., Barrios C., Lauc G.
Composition of the immunoglobulin G glycome associates with the severity of COVID-19. Glycobiology31(4):372-377, 2021. [Journal: Article] [CI: 31] [IF: 6]
DOI: 10.1093/glycob/cwaa102 SCOPUS: 85105131558

Vicente M.M., Alves I., Gaifem J., Rodrigues C.S., Fernandes Â., Dias A.M., Štambuk J., Petrović T., Oliveira P., Ferreira-da-Silva F., Soares A., Seixas N., Teixeira T., Malheiro L., Abreu M.M., Lauc G., Sarmento e Castro R., Pinho S.S.
Altered IgG glycosylation at COVID-19 diagnosis predicts disease severity. European Journal of Immunology52(6):946-957, 2022. [Journal: Article] [CI: 27] [IF: 5,4]
DOI: 10.1002/eji.202149491 SCOPUS: 85127438421