Alexandra R Fernandes

Alexandra R Fernandes Since 2009, when she became an independent researcher, Alexandra R Fernandes has been involved in two main areas: Diagnostics and Therapy. Her research has been focusing: 1) development of novel diagnostic tools for the genetic diagnostics of cardiomyopathies. In the context of this area of research, she has been involved in several national and international collaborations. This research work has been translated to a diagnostic company – HEARTGENETICS SA, where she was a co-founder (2013) and COO (between 2013-2015). 2) The application/validation of novel cancer diagnostics tools in clinical samples. Part of this research has been translated to Nano4 Global Lda, where she was a co-founder (2015) and presently COO. 3) The identification of new promising compounds for cancer therapy, in the characterization of their biological targets and their target delivery to cancer cells. She has been interested in the identification of markers of resistance to cancer therapy (mostly in chronic myelogenous leukemia and breast cancer). To accomplish these goals, she has been using in vitro studies with tumour cell lines (2D, 3D spheroids) primary cultures of cancer patients, patient-derived organoids, blood samples and more recently also in vivo studies using eggs embryos, zebrafish and mice. In the context of this area of research, she has been involved in several national and international collaborations and projects. She has also been using the dog as a model organism for the study of canine mammary tumours namely by studying the proteome and the transcriptome of canine mammary tumours with different morphologies and stages to identify new fusion products, new mutations or miRNAs involved in tumour progression. The creation of a database of primary cultures and tissues is also an objective of this research. She has developed a new cell line that has been licensed to Applied Biological Materials (ABM) Inc (https://www.abmgood.com/FR37-CMT-Tumor-Cells-T8002.html). She has been involved in Expert Evaluation of International R&D Projects and Grants (Austrian Science Fund I projects; ANR - Agence Nationale de la Researche; Czech Science Foundation; Welcome Trust, etc) Since 2009 she has been involved in several national and International funded Research Projects (5 has PI/Co-PI (2 with Industry) and 31 as Team member (5 European, 26 National)). She has experience as a scientific adviser (Post-Doc Supervision: 4 (since 2013); PhD Supervision: 16 (since 2011); PhD Jury – member in 11 PhD National Thesis and 3 PhD International Thesis; Master Supervision: 52 (since 2010); Master Jury: 100; Graduation Thesis Supervision: 80; Graduation Thesis Jury: >110; Erasmus - Post-Doc: 2; PhD students: 4; Master students: 1; graduation students: 7. She has published 10 book chapters, more than 180 papers in International Journals with referees, 3 papers in Proceedings of International Conferences (with referees), 3 papers in National Journals with referees. She has more than 50 oral communications in International and National Meetings (with referees) and more than 100 communications in Panel.