Catarina Brito
Head of Advanced Cell Models Lab / Advanced Cell Models for Drug Discovery and Translational Research

Biography
I have been the head of the Advanced Cell Models Lab since 2014, and a principal investigator at ITQB NOVA since 2023.
My research is mostly translational and preclinical. We are focused on the microenvironment-driven modulation during disease progression and targeted therapy response, through the development and interrogation of in vitro and ex vivo models of the disease microenvironment.
My group has pioneered cell-based strategies to tackle challenges in the imminent areas of cancer immunotherapies and viral vector-based gene therapies. Our research focuses are chronic inflammation and myeloid cell-driven immunosuppressive microenvironments, along two central research lines: 1. Macrophage-tumor cell crosstalk within the tumor microenvironment in immunosuppression and resistance to immunomodulatory therapies; 2. Neuron-glia crosstalk in neuroinflammation and innate immune response to viral vector-based gene therapies.
As a group leader, I have coordinated 18 research projects, securing competitive funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), the European Commission and EFPIA, and the pharmaceutical industry. With 85 papers (25 as senior author), I have supervised/co-supervised 16 PhD students (12 concluded).
I hold an MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Lisbon, Portugal (2001) and a PhD in Biochemistry & Cell Biology from NOVA University of Lisbon (2007). After a postdoc at iBET (Portugal), on bioprocessing of human pluripotent stem cell expansion and neural differentiation, C Brito became a senior project manager of academic and industrial collaborations, bridging her cell biology and cellular biotechnology expertise to develop preclinical cell models and bioassays.