Where Ideas Grow
Ana Vilarinho
PhD Student

Ana graduated in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences-University of Porto in 2020 and completed her master's degree in Oncology at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS)-University of Porto in 2022, focusing her thesis on the interplay between somatic mutations and cancer immunosurveillance, using preclinical models of intestinal tumorigenesis, in which she demonstrated that the immunological context within which tumors develop influences their immunogenicity. At present, she is enrolled in the Doctoral Program in Biomedicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), developing her PhD project “Cancer immunoevasion: mechanistic basis and therapeutic strategies" at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. José Carlos Machado. The main focus of her research is to unravel the mechanisms used by cancer cells to evade immune recognition and ultimately improve immunotherapy outcome.