Organizers | ameegus2017

IGCers

Amin Abdulbasit, known just as Abdul, is a PhD student from Nigeria.

He obtained his bachelor and master degree in Physiology, where he was also an assistant lecturer at the university of Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria, in the department of physiology.

In 2016 Abdul moved to Portugal, Oeiras, to study the “The role of the Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in adipose tissue biology” in the Membrane trafficking lab.

Despite his “serious” face expression, Abdul is an enthusiastic and very friendly person. He is a big fan of Arsenal football club of London and he loves reading African and Nigerian history, being his favorite authors Chimamanda, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.

Amin Abdulbasit

Spanish people are known by their energy and enthusiasm… Alba Rodríguez Díez is a Spanish on steroids (not literally)! After studying Biology in University of A Coruña, Alba decided to spend some time in rainy UK in the Sainsbury Laboratory.

Luckily for us, she got sick of all the rain and decided to do a PhD in sunny Portugal! In the IGC Alba continued to pursue her love for plants and to understand how to grow them on space. Under the supervision of Paula Duque, Alba is focused on the contribution of alternative splicing and chromatin dynamics to the stress tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana.

While Alba is finding ways to grow plants on space (she will be the first space farmer!), she gets inspiration from her comic books and builds her first prototypes with Lego blocks. Alba is also very keen on graphic design and created the mascot for our group!

Alba Díez

Ana Morais decided that the most interesting thing for her was to study and “understand” the whole life: from the Universe to cells. That’s why she started studying Physics at the university. Then, actually, she ends up studying biology and thanks to the enlightened Elio Sucena she started to study “Evo-Devo”. In the meanwhile other “revolutionary” ideas were rolling in her mind…she started to believe that diversity is one of the highest values in a community. And together with other students, during the academic years, she was participating in a group that aimed at bringing and applying ideas from interconnected systems in the university environment, supporting connection between students from different fields of study.

She is currently a shared PhD student between the Evolution and Development lab and Network Modeling lab. That gives a “clear” idea of who Ana is. She is a quite open person, open to different perspectives and experiences in life.

Ana Morais

Catarina, heart and soul of AmeeGus organizing committee not because everyone else doesn’t work but because she makes sure they do. Born and raised in Lisbon, she is a typical Lisbon-er. After completing Bachelors in Genetic and Molecular biology and MSc in Evolutionary and Development Biology, both from University of Lisbon, she is currently pursuing PhD on hormonal regulation in immunity pathways in insects under supervision of Élio Sucena. Her love for insects (except Cockroach!) is evidently clear from her choice of project. Her seemingly charismatic personality makes her an affable person and easy to get along with. She confided her love for different cuisines particularly Indian to few(sic). Apparently, she is also a nice cook. Considering Beach person that she is, she frequents Portuguese Vincentine Coast as often as she can, whenever she needs to recharge herself. When not in lab, she is an avid reader, writer, movie buff, fashionista, travel enthusiast, all rolled into one. Sight of Chimps in wild is enough to make her cry. Her ‘never give up’ attitude is something that keeps her motivated always!

Thank you for keeping us all on toes Catarina.

Catarina Nunes

Do you know the part of the world called Lucknow? It is a town “just” 500km away from Delhi. Sounds Indian, right? Chandra Shekhar, he never forgets to emphasise the fact that his name is not just “Chandra”, so be patient to complete the four syllables when you need help. You can hear him blast some Indian tunes in the lab on weekends when he thinks he is alone in the wing. Chandra Shekhar had his Bachelors in Biotechnology from India before porting to Instituto Superior Tecnico here in Portugal to bag his Master degree again in Biotechnology. He is currently a PhD student in the lab of Jorg Becker where he sheds new light into analysing the transcriptome of sperm cells from plants at single cell level and see to how, if any, the difference in sperm cells affect the gamete fusion. Aside reading scientific papers, Chandra Shekhar is a succinct writer and reads books on topics ranging from economics, to sports and politics. Chandra has never tasted meat before and will not be tasting it anytime soon. So if you are “Veg” or want to learn tips for a smooth transition into being one, then this is your man!

Chandra Shekhar

In beautiful Lisboa born and raised, at the Universidade de Lisboa was where he spent most of his days. The prince Filipe obtained there a degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Microbiology. Not enough for him, he decided to take his career to the next step and join the amazing community of IGC where he is trying to understand how bacteria regulates virulence factors to colonise a host; and for that he doesn’t have one PI, but two! Luis Teixeira and Karina Xavier.

Although science takes up most of his time, he loves travelling in and outside Portugal, specially to big cities. He also enjoys reading lots of Sci-Fi and watching professional gaming matches online, mostly League of Legends, and to top up his nerdiness, he has the geekiest T-shirts around!

An excellent scientist and better person, Filipe has a gift for cooking and would love to be a rock star guitarist in wonderful Vienna.

After finishing his PhD, he would like to continue his career with a postdoc in the United States. But for now, let's enjoy him here!

Filipe Vieira

Gabriele Sgarlata was born in Palermo, Italy in August 1990.

During his graduation and masters, he studied molecular biology in Padova, Italy. His master’s thesis was developed in Paris, where he fell in love with Population Genetics, his major field of interest.

Currently, Gabriele is doing his PhD thesis in the Population and Conservation Genetics Lab where he is studying how habitat fragmentation affects the populations of small mammals of Madagascar, such as lemurs and rodents. His project requires several bioinformatics skills and field work. This means he will travel to Madagascar and go to the middle of the jungle to collect field samples!

Gabri loves to travel and is an amazing cook. Outside the lab, his natural habitat is the center of Lisbon where he lives and knows all the cool spots to have dinner or go for a drink. Gabriele has an incredible creative mind and is very passionate and easy going. Certainly is somebody you should meet at Ameegus!

Gabriele Sgarlata

Born and raised in Lisbon, once upon a time Gonçalo thought he could be the next Messi… hmm… I mean Cristiano! Fortunately for us he realized what his true calling was and joined the science community.

He studied at the faculty of science in the Faculty of Sciences from the University of Lisbon where he got both his degree in biology and his master in evolutionary and developmental biology. Gonçalo is a veteran at IGC whose passion about evolution and host-microbe interaction has burned strong for a long time. As a result, he decided to get his PhD under the supervision of Luís Teixeira, with whom he is trying to understand how the microbiota of D. melanogaster is regulated.

Outside of science – and beside his hidden dream about becoming a football superstar – , Gonçalo is the one to go to if you want a tip on all the new hipster places to go for a drink or get dinner around the city. Oh! And let’s not forget, he has the most impeccable sense of fashion, especially astonishing from a straight guy!

Gonçalo Matos

Irina is a Cape Verdean student from Praia, the capital city. She came to the cold city of Viseu, Portugal, for a degree in Biomedical Sciences. After that, she moved to Coimbra to do her masters in Cellular and Molecular Biology.

She was always interested in cancer, as it is one of the leading causes of death in Cape Verde. So, in harmony with her cell biology background, her PhD project is focused on the consequences of centriole aberration in cancer.

Irina is a very enthusiastic person and is always ready to party with a smile in her face. Nevertheless, she is also very kind and is always available to help whomever needs her.

Being born in a small island, she used to travel a lot, and she still likes to do that whenever she can. Also, a true Cape Verdean girl, she loves to dance and probably has the best hair around IGC.

Irina Fonseca

Nuno is our camouflaged cape verdian student, he was born in Lisbon but has cape verdian blood running through his veins. He has a degree in Biology and a masters in Applied Microbiology both obtained from Univesidade de Lisboa. Nuno did his master thesis in Faculdade de Farmácia were he optimized a method to deliver DNA to specific cells using the bacteriophage spp1 as a vector.

Currently, Nuno is doing his PhD at the Cell Biology of Viral Infection lab supervised by Maria João Amorim. He is studying how the influenza A virus uses neuraminidase to modulate the levels of sialic acid present in proteins that compose the mucus layer in order to increase the spreading of the virus across cells.

Very early in his live Nuno moved to Vimeiro, he is the guy to go if you want to know everything about the surroundings of the place where the meeting is happening. Besides that he is a sea lover and our professional athlete. He did professional skimming during many years and competed at the National, European and even at the World championship in California!

Nuno Santos

If every group has to have a free spirit and a party animal, Rafael is most definitely ours.

Coming from the beautiful city of São Pedro do Sul, Rafa never let himself get tangled up by the green landscape of his hometown and left to study in Coimbra, where he did his MSc in Biomedical Research.

Rafael was always passionate about Immunology and during the PhD classes he just reinforced this interest and decided to work on T-cell development and thymus autonomy, supervised by Vera Martins.

Besides liking to spend time with his mice, he also likes to rave and to enjoy his free time in the sun. Rafa is always looking for the next opportunity to put on his backpack and explore new cities and meet new people, even in the most unexpected ways! He is always the first one to engage in a beach day or a night out downtown and always registers all the moments in photographs (in which he always looks flawless! Damn you!).

Rafael Paiva

Sónia Pereira is your sidekick if you ever need one! She is a part-time taekwondo master, full-time PhD student that still finds some time in between to devote to other secret passions (like gaming, Lord Of The Rings, petting her cats and listening to metal music!).

She was born on the other side of the river Tejo, which is considered to be a desert for all the people who live North of the river, but that didn’t stop her from travelling everyday to Lisbon where she did her Bachelor in Biology and Masters in Biotechnology.

She loves plants, and strongly feels they are neglected and cast aside from many fields in Biology, and so she devoted her career (for now) to the pursue of fundamental questions about the evolution of centrioles…using moss sperm! Once she knows what she wants, she moves the world to achieve it and her strength is contagious! She forged an original collaboration between Jörg Becker and Mónica Dias and she will make it work, for sure!

Don’t be fooled by her delicate figure, this woman is made of steel!