Nuno Filipe Santos Bernardes

Post-doctoral research fellow


Research Activities

My work focuses in using bacterial proteins as therapeutic agents in cancer, namely azurin form Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Several possible therapeutic targets have been identified for azurin. We have uncovered P-cadherin, which is overexpressed in invasive breast cancer. We intend to deepen the knowledge abput the mode of action of azurin towards cancer cells, attaining a more comprehensive view of the signaling pathways altered by this protein, that lead to decreased invasion and/or cell death.

Selected Publications

Bernardes N, Ribeiro AS, Abreu S, Vieira AF, Carreto L, Santos M, Seruca R, Paredes J and Fialho AM.High-throuput molecular profiling of a P-cadherin overexpressing breast cancer cell model reveals new targets for the anti-cancer bacterial protein azurin, Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2014 May;50:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2014.01.023.

Bernardes N, Ribeiro AS, Mota B, Matos RG, Arraiano CM, Seruca R, Paredes J and Fialho AM. (2013) The bacterial protein azurin impairs invasion and FAK/Src signaling in P-cadherin-overexpressing breast cancer cell models. PLoS ONE 8(7): e69023. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069023

Bernardes N, Chakrabarty AM, Fialho AM. (2013) Engineering of bacterial strains and their products for cancr therapy. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97(12):5189-99.

Fialho AM, Bernardes N, Chaktabarty AM. (2012) “Recent patents on live bacteria and their products as potential anticancer agents”, Recent Pat Anticancer Drug Discov 7(1):31-55.

Bernardes N, Seruca R, Chakrabarty AM, Fialho AM. (2009) “Microbial-based therapy of cancer: Current progress and future prospects”, Bioengineered Bugs, 1(3):178-90.


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