Henrique O. Duarte has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology Applied to Health Sciences (FEUP/ICBAS) awarded by the University of Porto (2020), funded by FCT and the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR). Host Institution: Glycobiology in Cancer group of Ipatimup/i3S. During his PhD, Henrique has comprehensively dissected the glycosylation profile of the ErbB2 oncogenic receptor in gastric cancer and identified glycan-mediated pathways of molecular resistance to the trastuzumab monoclonal antibody.
Currently: Junior Researcher at the Glycobiology in Cancer research group (Ipatimup/i3S), where he is pursuing the structural characterization and assessment of the functional and clinical impact of specific glycosylation signatures of the ErbB2 oncogenic receptor in metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma. To carry out this project, early after finishing his PhD, Henrique has secured 50.000€ funding as Principal Investigator by winning the "Prémio Francisco Augusto da Fonseca Dias e Maria José Melenas da Fonseca para Jovens Investigadores" award attributed by Ipatimup.
Henrique's PhD research work has been acknowledged and funded by multiple highly renowned Institutions of Biomedical and Cancer Research (including the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)). His work has selected for presentation in multiple international scientific meetings related to Cancer Biology (including the Porto Cancer Meeting), and has been awarded as both the poster and oral communication. He has co-authored 12 scientific papers in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals (including high profile publications in Oncogene, Cancer Cell, Molecular Aspects of Medicine), and 3 book chapters (including one in the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Cell Biology). He is the Principal Investigator of the above-mentioned research project (2021), serves as Co-Principal Investigator of an exploratory FCT-funded project (2021), and has integrated the teams of multiple FCT- and pharmaceutical industry-funded projects. He serves as a reviewer for high impact scientific journals, including Molecular Oncology, Cancers and iScience). He has integrated the organizing and scientific committee of two international scientific meetings.
Fields of Expertise: Molecular Biology/Oncology; Molecular Biotechnology/Bioengineering; Cell-based genome editing and glycoengineering; Mass spectrometry-based glycomics and glycoproteomics (training received by Prof. Manfred Wuhrer (2017 and 2019), head of the Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics of the Leiden University Medical Center (CPM/LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands).
Previous studies Integrated Master in Bioengineering , with a specialization in Molecular Biotechnology (FEUP/ICBAS) awarded by the University of Porto (2014), for which he was awarded with a Merit Scholarship for Exceptional Achievement as a student of the University of Porto by the Portuguese Government (3rd best student of the 2009-2014 class). Research intern at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the National Health Institute: testing a novel fusion tag for recombinant protein expression in bacteria (2012). Research intern at the Structural Biology Department of the Vrije University Amsterdam, The Netherlands (ERASMUS international mobility programme): disclosing the identity of the protein kinase responsible for the phosphorylation of the Estrogen Receptor Alpha in breast cancer (2013).