creating a
healthier future
José Pedro Castro
Associate Researcher

In 2015, José Pedro Castro (JPC) concluded his PhD in Biomedicine, University of Porto. He then joined as a post-doc Tilman Grune's (h-index >105, Google Scholar) lab, at the German Institute of Human Nutrition (Berlin), to study how aging contributes to proteostasis loss and cellular dysfunction (2015-2018) leading to >15 papers published as first, contributing or even corresponding author. One relevant manuscript as senior author was recently accepted in Comms Biology (2023) showing how aging primarily affects fast skeletal muscle fibers. In 2018, the JPC joined Vadim Gladyshev's lab (h-index >125, Google Scholar) at Harvard Medical School (Boston) upon being awarded with the highly competitive DFG Max-Kade Foundation fellowship to study the biology of aging using systems biology approaches. There, JPC was involved in several projects, such as validating in mice drug candidates predicted by transcriptomic signatures for lifespan extension (submitted to Cell), studying depletion of loss-of-function variants in centenarians( Nature Comms, 2024) testing early life effects of Rapamycin on mouse healthspan and lifespan (Science Advances, 2022), unraveling distinct longevity mechanisms across and within species and their association with aging (Cell, 2023), and the work as first author regarding multi-omics approach connecting aging mechanisms driving cancer, that was recently accepted in Nature Aging (2024). These international postdoctoral experiences provided the JPC the know-how in experimental work (cells, tissues, animal models) and in bioinformatic analyses, which he finds critical for understanding the complexity of the biology of aging. Upon returning to Portugal, JPC identified Logarinho's lab at i3S as an ideal environment to further develop his career. Attesting JPC supervision experience, 1 PhD, 4 MSc and 6 BSc successfully completed their degrees under his supervision, and 2 MSc are currently in the process. JPC has received 9 awards and/or honors, including Early Research Career Award (2010) and Young Investigator Award (2013) and CEEC 5th Ed. Assistant Researcher being ranked third (2022.00872.CEECIND). He’s also a reviewer for several scientific journals and a review editor for Redox Biology and Frontiers in Aging. He is the corresponding author of 5 publications and has been awarded with a prestigious Grant from Brigham and Women's Hospital. Regarding communication, JPC has delivered invited talks in international and national conferences (14 just this year). He was involved in teaching Immunology (IPP) and he is currently an invited professor to teach Biogerontology and Nutrition & Aging (FMUP and NOVA Med School). Moreover, he has (as of today) an h-index of 21 (Google Scholar), reflecting the impact of the JPC’s research contributions within the scientific community, >2400 citations and >35 peer-reviewed published articles. He is also co-founder and vice-president of SPMCLong (Sociedade Portuguesa Medicina e Ciência da Longevidade) (2024). Altogether, this points to scientific recognition by peers and institutions, and a promising path towards a competitive and successfully scientific career in research, supervision, education and dissemination of aging and longevity topics. To sum up, JPC has been studying the biology of aging for the past 15 years and is highly motivated to understand fundamental questions of the biology of aging but also to find novel biomarkers actionable for human healthspan maintenance.