Where Ideas Grow
Ana Rita Castro
PhD Student

My name is Ana Rita de Castro and I am currently a PhD student in the group of Dr. Tiago Dantas. 
I graduated in Biomedical Sciences at the Medical and Biomedical department of the University of Algarve (UAlg-DCBM) in 2017, with a final average of 14/20. I did my final year project entitled "Thymic Epithelial Cell Differentiation and Function" (with a duration of 3 months) in the group of Dr. Nuno Alves at i3S-Porto, for which I received a classification of 17/20. At the beginning of 2018, I joined the group of Dr. Tiago Dantas as a volunteer to gain research experience. For 8 months, I focused on the ciliary IFT20 homologue in C. elegans, and its importance in cilium-dependent signaling. From 2018 to 2020, I did my Master's degree in Biomedical Sciences - Disease mechanisms, also at the UAlg-DCBM/ i3S-Porto (17/20). For my master project (18 months), I  returned to the Dantas' lab to continue studying cilia in C. elegans, but with a focus on the "Ciliary recruitment of Dynein-2 motor and its role in sensory functions". My work in the Dantas group (total of 29 months) expanded and with the help of two lab colleagues, it originated two manuscripts in which I am first author (one published at micropub Biology; and another at the Journal of Cell Biology). I also had the opportunity of doing poster presentations at two international meetings. Taking all of this into consideration, my master thesis defense and work were very positively evaluated (20/20). I started my PhD in the Dantas' lab in January of 2022, and my thesis project is entitled: "Dissecting the mechanisms of ciliary gating: interplay between Dynein-2 and the transition zone".

Selected Publications

De-Castro A.R.G., Rodrigues D.R.M., De-Castro M.J.G., Vieira N., Vieira C., Carvalho A.X., Gassmann R., Abreu C.M.C., Dantas T.J.,
WDR60-mediated dynein-2 loading into cilia powers retrograde IFT and transition zone crossing. Journal of Cell Biology221(1):, 2021. [Journal: Article] [CI: 14] [IF: 8,1]
DOI: 10.1083/jcb.202010178 SCOPUS: 85123025569.