Where Ideas Grow
Ana Tomás
Group leader
Ana Tomás is a Molecular Parasitologist that received her MSc (1988) and PhD (1995) degrees from the University of London (LSHTM). Her scientific interests are the study of the biology of protozoan parasites and of the interaction of these with their mammalian hosts. She is also an Associate Professor at ICBAS-University of Porto where she teaches Parasitology to veterinary and biochemistry students. She has authorship over 50 publications and book chapters and supervised different MSc and PhD students.

Selected Publications

Castro H., Teixeira F., Romao S., Santos M., Cruz T., Flórido M., Appelberg R., Oliveira P., Ferreira-da-Silva F., Tomás A.M.,
Leishmania mitochondrial peroxiredoxin plays a crucial peroxidase-unrelated role during infection: Insight into its novel chaperone activity. PLoS Pathogens7(10):, 2011. [Journal: Article] [CI: 77] [IF: 9,1]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002325 SCOPUS: 80055096383.


Vale-Costa S., Gomes-Pereira S., Teixeira C.M., Rosa G., Rodrigues P.N., Tomás A., Appelberg R., Gomes M.S.,
Iron Overload Favors the Elimination of Leishmania infantum from Mouse Tissues through Interaction with Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases7(2):, 2013. [Journal: Article] [CI: 27] [IF: 4,5]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002061 SCOPUS: 84874764417.


Carvalho S., Barreira da Silva R., Shawki A., Castro H., Lamy M., Eide D., Costa V., Mackenzie B., Tomás A.M.,
LiZIP3 is a cellular zinc transporter that mediates the tightly regulated import of zinc in Leishmania infantum parasites. Molecular Microbiology96(3):581-595, 2015. [Journal: Article] [CI: 17] [IF: 3,8]
DOI: 10.1111/mmi.12957 SCOPUS: 84928391014.


Teixeira F., Castro H., Cruz T., Tse E., Koldewey P., Southworth D.R., Tomás A.M., Jakob U.,
Mitochondrial peroxiredoxin functions as crucial chaperone reservoir in Leishmania infantum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America112(7):E616-E624, 2015. [Journal: Article] [CI: 68] [IF: 9,4]
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1419682112 SCOPUS: 84923301607.


Morais M.A.B., Giuseppe P.O., Souza T.A.C.B., Castro H., Honorato R.V., Oliveira P.S.L., Netto L.E.S., Tomas A.M., Murakami M.T.,
Calcium and magnesium ions modulate the oligomeric state and function of mitochondrial 2-Cys peroxiredoxins in Leishmania parasites. Journal of Biological Chemistry292(17):7023-7039, 2017. [Journal: Article] [CI: 9] [IF: 4]
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M116.762039 SCOPUS: 85018327120.


Gómez Pérez V., García-Hernandez R., Corpas-López V., Tomás A.M., Martín-Sanchez J., Castanys S., Gamarro F.,
Decreased antimony uptake and overexpression of genes of thiol metabolism are associated with drug resistance in a canine isolate of Leishmania infantum. International Journal for Parasitology: Drugs and Drug Resistance6(2):133-139, 2016. [Journal: Article] [CI: 26] [IF: 4,8]
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpddr.2016.04.003 SCOPUS: 84974604096.


Marques F., Vale-Costa S., Cruz T., Marques J.M., Silva T., Neves J.V., Cortes S., Fernandes A., Rocha E., Appelberg R., Rodrigues P., Tomás A.M., Gomes M.S.,
Studies in the mouse model identify strain variability as a major determinant of disease outcome in Leishmania infantum infection. Parasites and Vectors8(1):, 2015. [Journal: Article] [CI: 7] [IF: 3,2]
DOI: 10.1186/s13071-015-1259-6 SCOPUS: 84950313576.


Sousa A.F., Gomes-Alves A.G., Benítez D., Comini M.A., Flohé L., Jaeger T., Passos J., Stuhlmann F., Tomás A.M., Castro H.,
Genetic and chemical analyses reveal that trypanothione synthetase but not glutathionylspermidine synthetase is essential for Leishmania infantum. Free Radical Biology and Medicine73:229-238, 2014. [Journal: Article] [CI: 41] [IF: 5,7]
DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2014.05.007 SCOPUS: 84902284220.


Castro H., Tomás A.M.,
Thiol Peroxidases of Trypanosomatids. Trypanosomatid Diseases: Molecular Routes to Drug Discovery:201-213, 2013. [Book: Book Chapter] [CI: 1]
DOI: 10.1002/9783527670383.ch10 SCOPUS: 84886470740.


Castro H., Sousa C., Santos M., Cordeiro-da-Silva A., Flohé L., Tomás A.M.,
Complementary antioxidant defense by cytoplasmic and mitochondrial peroxiredoxins in Leishmania infantum. Free Radical Biology and Medicine33(11):1552-1562, 2002. [Journal: Article] [CI: 88] [IF: 5,5]
DOI: 10.1016/S0891-5849(02)01089-4 SCOPUS: 0036889825.