“Distinguished Seminars” com Teresa Neves | 30 de novembro – Powered por Izasa Scientific | Universidade do Algarve

Sobre a palestra: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays a key role in regulating cell survival, proliferation and migration, and its overexpression/activation is correlated with cancer progression. Cancer therapies targeting EGFR have been applied with some success. We show that illumination of adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells with 280 nm at irradiance levels up to 20x weaker than the UVB solar output for short periods of time (15‐45 min) prevents EGF‐mediated activation of EGFR located on the cell membrane, preventing/reducing cellular disaggregation, formation of filopodia and cell migration. This light effect was further confirmed in a scratch assay and shown to be more effective than that of a specific EGFR‐signaling inhibitor. This new photonic approach may be applicable to the treatment of various types of cancer, alone or in combination with other therapies.

Sobre o palestrante: Teresa Neves holds a 5-year Diploma (1994) in Biochemical Engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, a Master degree in Molecular Biology from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and a PhD (2000) in Protein Biophysics from Aalborg University, Denmark. During her PhD she has carried out protein electrostatic and structure/function relationship studies of lipase/esterases, analyzed large protein structure data sets to derive sequence/structure/function insights (protein data mining), NMR studies and carried out research on the interaction between UV light, proteins and materials. Fluorescence spectroscopy has been a key technology during her studies. During her PhD she worked at the Technical University of Lisbon (IST), University of Trondheim (Magnetic Resonance Center) in Norway, Aalborg University in Denmark, and University of Maryland (Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy) in USA. As a postdoctoral researcher for 3 years, she spent time at Aalborg University and at the Lund Laser Center, Lund University, Sweden working on ultrafast spectroscopy studies on proteins and on the effects of UV on proteins.

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