Carla Manuela Abreu

Genetics of Cognitive Dysfunction

Associate Researcher

Carla Abreu studied Applied Biology in the University of Minho. For her undergraduate project, she joined the lab of Professor Noel Lowndes at the National University of Ireland in Galway (NUIG) as an Erasmus student to investigate the mechanisms by which cell cycle checkpoints are activated and regulated after DNA damage. Carla was then awarded a fellowship from FCT to continue her work in Prof. Lowndes’s lab as a PhD student until 2012. Her dissertation focused on the interplay between cell cycle regulation by the cyclin-dependent kinases and the activation of the DNA damage signaling pathway.

In her next career step Carla joined the lab of Professor Maria Jasin at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA. As a postdoctoral fellow, she investigated the mechanisms of meiotic DNA double-strand breaks repair by homologous recombination, an early step in the meiotic program required for the proper segregation of homologs and development of germ cells.

In September of 2018, Carla joined the IBMC/i3S with the aim to advance her career as an independent investigator and start her own line of research on the mechanisms regulating cell division/proliferation and genome integrity during animal development, with special interest in neurodeveloment. Her main collaborators include Dr. Tiago Dantas, Dr. Reto Gassmann and Dr. Ana Carvalho.

Research Team:

- Diogo Rodrigues, MSc (PhD student)

- Ana Rita De-Castro, MSc (PhD student)

- Tiago Xavier Ribeiro, MSc (PhD student)

- Célia Azevedo Soares, MD, PhD (Clinical Genetics and Neurodevelopment expert)

- Maria João De-Castro, BSc (Master Student)

- Francisco Santos, BSc (Master Student)

- Luísa Fonseca, BSc (Master Student)

- Maria Francisca Sousa (Bachelor Student - Final year project)

Alumni Team members:

- Carmen Vieira, BSc, MSc (Master project 2018-2019, currently a PhD. student at ICVS, UMinho, Braga)

- Telma Oliveira BSc (Final year project - 2018)

- Marcos Machado, BSc (visiting student 2020; currently a Master student at KTH Royal institute of Tecnology, Sweden)

- Joana Gonçalves, BSc (Visiting Student 2020-2021; currently a PhD. candidate at i3S)

Current Funding:

CEECIND/01985/2018 and 2022.01964.PTDC to C.A.

SFRH/BD/143985/2019 to D.R., 2021.04761.BD to T.R. and UI/BD/1528652022 to A.C.

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.

Abreu C.M.C., Dantas T.J.,

Coping with centriole loss: pericentriolar material maintenance after centriole degeneration. Communications Biology4(1):, 2021. [Journal: Article] [IF: 6,5]
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02243-6 SCOPUS: 85107421637.

Abreu C.M., Prakash R., Romanienko P.J., Roig I., Keeney S., Jasin M.,

Shu complex SWS1-SWSAP1 promotes early steps in mouse meiotic recombination. Nature Communications9(1):, 2018. [Journal: Article] [CI: 35] [IF: 11,9]
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06384-x SCOPUS: 85054660063.

Luo M., Zhou J., Leu N.A., Abreu C.M., Wang J., Anguera M.C., de Rooij D.G., Jasin M., Wang P.J.,

Polycomb Protein SCML2 Associates with USP7 and Counteracts Histone H2A Ubiquitination in the XY Chromatin during Male Meiosis. PLoS Genetics11(1):, 2015. [Journal: Article] [CI: 53] [IF: 6,7]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004954 SCOPUS: 84924390494.

Abreu C.M., Kumar R., Hamilton D., Dawdy A.W., Creavin K., Eivers S., Finn K., Balsbaugh J.L., O'Connor R., Kiely P.A., Shabanowitz J., Hunt D.F., Grenon M., Lowndes N.F.,

Site-Specific Phosphorylation of the DNA Damage Response Mediator Rad9 by Cyclin-Dependent Kinases Regulates Activation of Checkpoint Kinase 1. PLoS Genetics9(4):, 2013. [Journal: Article] [CI: 18] [IF: 8,2]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003310 SCOPUS: 84876853162.

Granata M., Lazzaro F., Novarina D., Panigada D., Puddu F., Abreu C.M., Kumar R., Grenon M., Lowndes N.F., Plevani P., Muzi-Falconi M.,

Dynamics of RAD9 chromatin binding and checkpoint function are mediated by its dimerization and are cell cycle-regulated by CDK1 activity. PLoS Genetics6(8):, 2010. [Journal: Article] [CI: 56] [IF: 9,5]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1001047 SCOPUS: 77957368466.