Helena Pópulo
Cancer Signalling & Metabolism
Junior Researcher
Helena Pópulo is a postdoctoral fellow at IPATIMUP, at the Cancer Biology group, where she has previously performed her pHD thesis. Helena?s research focuses on the role of mTOR and MAPK pathways in melanoma development and the pursuit of new therapeutic targets and possible therapies or combination of therapies for melanoma treatment, namely related with cancer metabolism. Her work has led to the publication of several papers on the role of mTOR pathway activation on cutaneous and ocular melanoma development and the association of this pathway with the MAPK pathway and poor prognosis of melanoma patients. Also, she reported the association of the presence of TERT gene mutations with melanoma poor prognosis. Her work has provided important insights about the possibility of targeting metabolism in order to treat melanoma.