Docente
Helena Isabel Marques Nunes Cabaço

Resume

Helena Nunes Cabaço is a Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher at Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM). She graduated in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in 2002 and earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon in 2010. Her doctoral research, developed at the Human Immunodeficiency and Immune Reconstitution Lab at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM), focused on Immunology and Human T cell development, particularly on the development of regulatory T cells in the human thymus, earning her the Basic Research Award from NEDAI (Núcleo de Estudos de Doenças Auto-Imunes) of the Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine. In 2015, as a Post-Doc at iMM, she led a project funded by the Gilead Genesis Program, exploring the impact of HIV-2 infection on human T cell development. In 2017 she assumed the role of Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Prudêncio Lab (Plasmodium Infection & Anti-malarial Interventions) at iMM, where she played a pivotal role in evaluating the immune responses during the clinical trial of a novel malaria vaccine candidate, PbVac. This work earned the prestigious 2020 Pfizer Award in Clinical Investigation. Helena Nunes Cabaço has an extensive academic background, having conducted research in Immunology and Neurosciences at renowned institutions worldwide, including the Mayo Clinic (Minnesota, USA), Universidad Miguel Hernandez (Alicante, Spain), Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Lisbon, Portugal), Baylor College of Medicine (Texas, USA), and Erasmus MC University (Rotterdam, The Netherlands). Throughout her career, she has made significant contributions to scientific literature, with numerous peer-reviewed articles, many of which she authored as first author, appearing in reputable journals, including Science Translational Medicine. Helena Nunes Cabaço holds the positions of Assistant Professor at Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, where she is the regent teacher of the Immunology class for the Biology and Biochemistry courses, and of Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. She has further demonstrated her commitment to education by supervising numerous BSc and MSc students and serving on the jury for MSc and Ph.D. theses. She also contributed to the Thesis Committee of students from the Lisbon BioMed PhD Program. Helena Nunes Cabaço has also been involved in organizing various Meetings and Events in the field of Immunology, along with society-oriented initiatives such as the Open International Immunology Day and workshops for children in elementary schools focusing on Vaccines and Science. In 2017, she received an Entrepreneurship award from Healthcare City. In 2020, she organized and coordinated a Task Force at iMM for establishing a Biobank collection of samples from COVID-19 patients. Her current research at GIMM focuses on developing effective malaria vaccines and enhancing vaccine immunogenicity in aging populations, with a strong emphasis on translational potential for future clinical applications.

Graus

• Doutoramento
  Biomedical Sciences
• Licenciatura
  Biochemistry

Publicações

Preprint

Journal article

• 2025-01-10, Drug Interaction Studies of Cabamiquine:Ganaplacide Combination against Hepatic Plasmodium berghei, ACS Infectious Diseases
• 2024-10-15, Decoding mutational hotspots in human disease through the gene modules governing thymic regulatory T cells, Frontiers in Immunology
• 2023-12-13, SARS-CoV-2 decreases malaria severity in co-infected rodent models, Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
• 2023-12, Variable long-term protection by radiation-, chemo-, and genetically-attenuated Plasmodium berghei sporozoite vaccines, Vaccine
• 2023-11-24, The effect of dosage on the protective efficacy of whole-sporozoite formulations for immunization against malaria, npj Vaccines
• 2022-09-08, Five decades of clinical assessment of whole-sporozoite malaria vaccines, Frontiers in Immunology
• 2022-02-11, Human CD4 T Cells From Thymus and Cord Blood Are Convertible Into CD8 T Cells by IL-4, Frontiers in Immunology
• 2022-02-10, Expression of Human Endogenous Retroviruses in the Human Thymus Along T Cell Development, Frontiers in Virology
• 2022, Impact of dietary protein restriction on the immunogenicity and efficacy of whole-sporozoite malaria vaccination
• 2021-10-29, Excreted Trypanosoma brucei proteins inhibit Plasmodium hepatic infection, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• 2021-05-16, A guide to investigating immune responses elicited by whole-sporozoite pre-erythrocytic vaccines against malaria, The FEBS Journal
• 2020-11-10, Seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in COVID-19 patients and healthy volunteers up to 6 months post disease onset, European Journal of Immunology
• 2020-05-20, An open-label phase 1/2a trial of a genetically modified rodent malaria parasite for immunization against Plasmodium falciparum malaria, Science Translational Medicine
• 2019-11-08, Trypanosoma brucei infection protects mice against malaria, PLOS Pathogens
• 2017-05-17, HIV-2 infection is associated with preserved GALT homeostasis and epithelial integrity despite ongoing mucosal viral replication, Mucosal Immunology
• 2015-08-03, Regulatory T-Cell Development in the Human Thymus, Frontiers in Immunology
• 2015-01, Human regulatory T-cell development is dictated by Interleukin-2 and -15 expressed in a non-overlapping pattern in the thymus, Journal of Autoimmunity
• 2014-12, Thymic HIV-2 infection uncovers post-transcriptional control of viral replication in human thymocytes.
• 2013, Repairing thymic function, Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation
• 2011, Differentiation of human thymic regulatory T cells at the double positive stage, European Journal of Immunology
• 2011, CD4+ recent thymic emigrants are infected by HIV in vivo, implication for pathogenesis, AIDS
• 2010, Foxp3 induction in human and murine thymus precedes the CD4+ CD8+ stage but requires early T-cell receptor expression, Immunology and Cell Biology

Thesis / Dissertation

• 2010-11-19, PhD, Development of regulatory T cells in the human thymus : one step beyond; Desenvolvimento de células T reguladoras no timo humano
• 2002-10, Degree, CD39 Expression and B Cell Differentiation

Conference abstract

• 2024-10-23, INATIVAÇÃO DO CROMOSSOMA X NO LÚPUS ERITEMATOSO SISTÉMICO (Oral communication by Patricia Costa Reis), 24º Congresso Nacional de Pediatria

Conference poster

• 2024-10-02, INATIVAÇÃO DO CROMOSSOMA X NO LÚPUS ERITEMATOSO SISTÉMICO, 2º Congresso Nacional de Reumatologia Pediátrica
• 2023-03-29, Differential Binding in human thymic regulatory T cells refine whole-genome analyses of complex immune diseases, XLVIII Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Immunology
• 2022-12-05, Nunes-Cabaço H, Prudêncio M; "Age-dependent Impact of Malaria on Thymic Function", British Society for Immunology Congress 2022, Liverpool, UK
• 2021-10-09, Can Trypanosoma brucei be a new ally in the fight against malaria? , 32nd Molecular Parasitology Meeting
• 2021-05-25, Nunes-Cabaco H, Moita D, Rôla C, Mendes AM, Prudêncio M; "Impact of protein deficiency on the immunogenicity and efficacy of malaria vaccination", EMBL Conference: BioMalPar XVII: Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite
• 2021-05-20, Nunes-Cabaço H, Moita D, Rôla C, Mendes AM, Prudêncio M; "Impact of protein deficiency on the immunogenicity and efficacy of malaria vaccination", XLVII Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Immunology
• 2019-06-15, New malaria vaccine candidate against Plasmodium vivax using genetically modified rodent Plasmodium parasites, SPI XLV Meeting, Sociedade Portuguesa de Imunologia
• 2019-05-17, Cunha-Barreto A, Mendes AM, Nunes-Cabaço H, Prudêncio M; "Evaluation of tissue-associated cellular immune responses to PbVAC, a P. berghei-based whole-sporozoite malaria vaccine candidate, in rhesus macaques", XLV Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Immunology, Coimbra, Portugal
• 2019-05, New insights into interferon-mediated immune responses elicited by Plasmodium liver stage infection, XLV Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Immunology
• 2017-03-13, Tokunaga Y, Nunes-Cabaço H, Sousa AE; "Differentiation of FOXP3+ regulatory T cells in the human thymus: unbiased approaches circumventing sequential-gating strategy", 7th International Kyoto T Cell Conference (KTCC), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
• 2017-03-13, Ramalho-dos-Santos A, Martins L, Caramalho I, Barata J, Sousa AE, Nunes-Cabaço H; "IL-4 induces coreceptor reversal in CD4-committed human thymocytes", 7th International Kyoto T Cell Conference (KTCC), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
• 2016-06-01, Ramalho-dos-Santos A, Martins L, Caramalho I, Barata J, Sousa AE, Nunes-Cabaço H; "A Role for IL-4 in CD4 T cell Plasticity", Portuguese Society for Immunology XLII Annual Meeting, IGC, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2016-06-01, Antão A, Foxall RB, Matoso P, Pires AR, Serra-Caetano A, Sousa AE, Nunes-Cabaço H*, Rocha C*; "In vitro infection of lymphoid tissues by HIV-2", Portuguese Society for Immunology XLII Annual Meeting, IGC, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2015-10-26, Mendes-Passos V, Foxall RB, Matoso P, Pires AR, Tendeiro R, Pinheiro AI, Soares RS, Sousa AE and Nunes-Cabaço H; "Host Restriction Factors OF Retroviral Replication in the Human Thymus", Portuguese Society for Immunology XLI Annual Meeting, ICVS, Braga, Portugal
• 2015-04-09, Helena Nunes-Cabaço, Vânia Mendes-Passos, Russell B. Foxall, Paula Matoso, Ana R. Pires, Rita Tendeiro, Ana I. Pinheiro, Rui S. Soares, Ana E. Sousa; "Host restriction factors of retroviral replication in the human thymus", 1st International Venice Thymus Meeting 2015, San Servolo Island, Venice, Italy
• 2014-05-05, Nunes-Cabaço H, Matoso P, Foxall RB, Tendeiro R, Pires AR, Pinheiro AI, Soares RS, Sousa AE.; "Infection of the human thymus by HIV-2", 9th ENII EFIS/EJI Summer School on Advanced Immunology, Porto Conde, Alghero, Sardinia, Italy
• 2013-12-19, Nunes-Cabaço H, Matoso P, Foxall RB, Tendeiro R, Pire AR, Soares RS, Pinheiro AI, Sousa AE; "Infection of the human thymus by HIV-2", Thymus@Porto II IBMC, Porto, Portugal
• 2012-03-26, Nunes-Cabaço H, Tendeiro R, Foxall RB, Soares RS, Pinheiro AI, Matoso P, Sousa AE; "HIV-2 has a reduced ability to infect the human thymus", Frontiers in HIV Pathogenesis, Therapy and Eradication Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
• 2011-10-14, Nunes-Cabaço H, Caramalho I, Sepúlveda N, Sousa AE; "Differentiation of human thymic regulatory T-cells at the double positive stage", Thymus@Porto, IBMC, Porto, Portugal
• 2009-09-28, Nunes-Cabaço H, Ribot JC, Caramalho I, Serra-Caetano A, Silva-Santos B, Sousa AE; "Foxp3 induction in human and murine thymus precedes the CD4+CD8+ stage but requires early TCRalpha expression", Portuguese Society for Immunology XXXV Annual Meeting, IMM, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2007-04-11, Nunes Cabaço H & Sousa AE; "Dynamics of Foxp3, CD25 and CD127 expression in the human thymus", World Immune Regulation Meeting – Special Focus on Regulatory Cells, Davos, Switzerland
• 2004-06-10, Nunes Cabaço H, Haury M, Fairen A, Parra P.; "A Transgenic Mouse Expressing GFP in the Cortical Subplate and Hippocampal Pyramidal Cells at Different Time Points", FENS (Federation of European Neuroscience Societies) Forum 2004, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2004-04-14, Nunes Cabaço H, Haury M, Fairen A, Parra P.; "A Transgenic Mouse Expressing GFP in the Cortical Subplate and Hippocampal Pyramidal Cells at Different Time Points", Symposium "New Insights on Developmental Neurobiology", Cadiz, Spain