Catarina Leitão

About

Catarina Leitão is a Biologist with a Master's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Catarina completed her biology degree at the University of Aveiro in 2016, after a nine months curricular internship in Spain under the Erasmus+ programme, which was achieved in collaboration with the Centro de Investigación en Medicina Molecular y Enfermedades Crónicas. In 2018, Catarina also completed her Master's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology, with a thesis entitled "Impact of an astrocytic pathology on hippocampal memory" in Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, at University of Coimbra. Catarina participated in three poster and oral presentations in national and international conferences. In 2019, Catarina joined iBiMED (Institute of Biomedicine) in Aveiro, as a research fellow under Doctor Bruno Neves's supervision.

Currently, she is a PhD student in Biomedicine at the University of Aveiro, developing her PhD project under the supervision of Doctor Teresa Herdeiro, Doctor Margarida Fardilha and Doctor Fátima Roque (IPG). The project “Impact of the nutritional state and inflammation of Prostate Cancer” aims to identify the relationship between lifestyle and inflammation in order to better understand which factors may lead to prostate cancer development and progression and, consequently, to search and establish novel tools that can complement PSA screening. This approach will allow the identification of men at highest risk of developing aggressive disease, which is imperative to prevent lethal prostate cancer and avoid the unnecessary treatment of men who may never develop serious symptoms. Although her PhD scholarship has already ended, Catarina is still finalizing her doctoral project and currently holds a research fellowship in the project Aveiro Education and Social Alliance – Promotion of Academic Success and Reduction of School Dropout, funded by the PRR. Within this project, her work is mainly dedicated to the development and implementation of a leveling course for international students in Biomedical Sciences, particularly in Mathematics and Chemistry, which includes the design of didactic materials, digital resources, and formative assessments, as well as the dissemination and impact evaluation of this course.

Publications

Papers

Catarina Leitão; Vanessa Neto; Luanna Silva; Marta Estrela; Margarida Fardilha; Fátima Roque; Maria Teresa Herdeiro. "Perceptions, Knowledge, and Attitudes of General Population About Prostate Cancer-Associated Risk Factors: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies Focusing on Lifestyle". Current Oncology Reports (2025): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-025-01653-7.
10.1007/s11912-025-01653-7

Catarina Leitão; Marta Estrela; Luís Monteiro; Margarida Fardilha; Herdeiro MT; Fátima Roque. "Health Professionals’ Perceptions about Prostate Cancer—A Focus Group Study". Cancers (2024): https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/16/17/3005.
10.3390/cancers16173005

Catarina Leitão; Bárbara Matos; Fátima Roque; Maria Teresa Herdeiro; Margarida Fardilha. "The Impact of Lifestyle on Prostate Cancer: A Road to the Discovery of New Biomarkers". Journal of Clinical Medicine 11 10 (2022): 2925-2925. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11102925.
10.3390/jcm11102925

Catarina Leitão; Anna Mignano; Marta Estrela; Margarida Fardilha; Adolfo Figueiras; Fátima Roque; Maria Teresa Herdeiro. "The Effect of Nutrition on Aging—A Systematic Review Focusing on Aging-Related Biomarkers". Nutrients (2022): https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030554.
10.3390/nu14030554

Pereira, Marlene F.; Amaral, Inês M.; Lopes, Cátia; Leitão, Catarina; Madeira, Daniela; Lopes, João P.; Gonçalves, Francisco Q.; et al. "L-a-aminoadipate causes astrocyte pathology with negative impact on mouse hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory". The FASEB Journal 35 8 (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.202100336r.

Calmeiro, João; Mendes, Luís; Duarte, Iola F.; Leitão, Catarina; Tavares, Adriana R.; Ferreira, Daniel Alexandre; Gomes, Célia; et al. "In-Depth Analysis of the Impact of Different Serum-Free Media on the Production of Clinical Grade Dendritic Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy". Frontiers in Immunology 11 (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.593363

Posters

Mendes, L.; Leitão, C.; Silva, AMS.; Jones, JG.; Neves, BM.; Duarte, IF. “Immunometabolic dysregulations in human macrophages exposed to pro-atherogenic compound 7-ketocholesterol”. Metabolomics 2020, 27-29 October 2020 (virtually).

Agostinho, P., Pereira, M., Amaral, I., Leitão, C., Lopes, C., Canas, P., Cunha, R. “Astrocytic dysfunction caused by L-a-aminoadipate impairs mouse hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory (#644, T09-076B)” XIV European meeting on glial cells in health and disease. (Abstract published in Wiley E-Only Supplement to Glia Journal). Porto, Portugal 10-13 July 2019.

Leitão, Catarina; Amaral, Inês; Pereira, Marlene; Cunha, Rodrigo A.; Agostinho, Paula. "Astrocyte pathology is sufficient to trigger hippocampal synaptic dysfunction and memory loss in mice". Trabalho apresentado em III Symposium of Portuguese Glial Network, 2018

Pereira, Malene; Amaral, Inês; Lopes, João; Lopes, Cátia; Leitão, Catarina; Cunha, Rodrigo A.; Agostinho, Paula. "Pharmacological approaches to imping astrocytic function: impact on mouse Hippocampal LTP". Trabalho apresentado em 11th FENS Forum of Neuroscience in Berlin, 2018