Sílvia Andreia Sousa

assistant researcher

G-8502-2011

iBB Group: bsrg

sousasilvia@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Expertise: Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc); Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Antibody-based Immunotherapies; Novel Antimicrobial agents and targets; C. elegans infection model.

Short Bio:

Sílvia A. Sousa graduated in Microbiology and Genetics, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (2001) and have a PhD in Biotechnology from Instituto Superior Técnico (2007). The focus of Sílvia research has been bacterial lung infections of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, in particular: 1) the identification and characterization of Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) virulence factors, with the objective to develop new anti-virulence drugs; 2) antibody-based Immunotherapies as a tool for tackling the multidrug-resistant infections caused by Bcc and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Additionally, Sílvia have been also involved in the study and development of new antimicrobials and their targets.

Research Focus:

Study and development of new antimicrobial approaches against multidrug resistant bacteria, focusing on the CF pathogens Bcc and P. aeruginosa.

Immunomics-Bcc: Exploitation of immunogenic proteins of the Burkholderia cepacia complex to design new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies (PTDC/BBB-BIO/1958/2012). Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT).

Seixas, A.M.M., Sousa, S.A., Leitão, J.H. (2022). “Antibody-Based Immunotherapies as a Tool for Tackling Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Infections”. Vaccines. 10 (11): 1789. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111789
Seixas, A.M.M., Sousa, S.A., Feliciano, J.R., Gomes, S.C., Ferreira, M.R., Moreira, L.M., Leitão, J.H. (2021). A Polyclonal Antibody Raised against the B. cenocepacia OmpA-like Protein BCAL2645 Impairs the Bacterium Adhesion and Invasion of Human Epithelial Cells In Vitro. Biomedicines, 9 (12): 1788. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9121788

Sousa, S.A., Seixas, A.M., Mandal, M., Rodríguez-Ortega, M.J., Leitão, J.H. (2020). Characterization of the Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 Surface-Exposed Immunoproteome. Vaccines. 8 (3): 509. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8030509

Sousa, S.A., Soares-Castro, P., Seixas, A.M.M., Feliciano, J.R., Balugas, B., Barreto, C., Pereira, L., Santos, P.M., Leitão, J.H. (2020). New insights into the immunoproteome of B. cenocepacia J2315 using sera samples from Cystic Fibrosis patients”. New Biotechnology 54: 62-70, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbt.2019.08.006

Sousa, S.A., Leitão, J.H., Silva, R.A.L., Belo, D., Santos, I.C., Guerreiro, J.F., Martins, M., Fontinha, D., Prudêncio, M., Almeida, M., Lorcy, D., Marques, F. (2020). On the path to gold: Monoanionic au bisdithiolate complexes with antimicrobial and antitumor activities. J Inorg Biochem. 202: 110904. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2019.110904

iBB People

Sílvia Andreia Sousa