Where Ideas Grow
Renata Freitas
Assistant Professor

Renata Freitas is a team leader at the I3S-Institute for Research and Innovation in Health since the onset of this institution, and is currently integrated into the Cell Growth and Differentiation Group. In addition, she has been an invited professor at ICBAS-Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar/University of Porto since 2013, where she is responsible for two courses yearly for medical and aquatic sciences undergraduate students. Her team explores the role of developmental genes in embryonic formation, morphological evolution, and cancer to discover the molecular mechanisms associated with these processes. In the past, she has discovered developmental mechanisms in lampreys and sharks (eg Nature 2006) and explored the role of HOX genes in morphological evolution (eg Developmental Cell 2012). She also discovered targets affected by modulation of HOX genes in breast cancer (eg BBACAN 2020, Biomedicines 2021) and pursued studies in the area of ​​Evo-Devo (eg Genetics 2020, Scientific Reports 2021). More recently, she has started to carry out drug tests for new cancer therapies in collaboration with colleagues from I3s and University of Coimbra and already has an article accepted in this novel research path. In summary, her research has yielded 24 peer-reviewed articles and 5 conference and book publications. She is the first author or corresponding author of most of these articles.

Selected Publications

Freitas R., Gómez-Marín C., Wilson J.M., Casares F., Gómez-Skarmeta J.L.,
Hoxd13 Contribution to the Evolution of Vertebrate Appendages. Developmental Cell23(6):1219-1229, 2012. [Journal: Article] [CI: 71] [IF: 12,9]
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.10.015 SCOPUS: 84870845601.


Freitas R., Zhang G.J., Cohn M.J.,
Evidence that mechanisms of fin development evolved in the midline of early vertebrates. Nature442(7106):1033-1037, 2006. [Journal: Article] [CI: 168] [IF: 26,7]
DOI: 10.1038/nature04984 SCOPUS: 33748305741.


Freitas R., Cohn M.J.,
Genomic regulation of Hox collinearity. Developmental Cell10(1):8-9, 2006. [Journal: Short Survey] [CI: 3] [IF: 13,5]
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2005.12.008 SCOPUS: 29744445744.


de Bessa Garcia S.A., Araújo M., Pereira T., Mouta J., Freitas R.,
HOX genes function in Breast Cancer development. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on Cancer1873(2):, 2020. [Journal: Review] [CI: 52] [IF: 10,7]
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbcan.2020.188358 SCOPUS: 85082425239.