@ CIIMAR, UNIVERSITY OF PORTO
(LEÃO LAB)
WELCOME TO THE LEAO LAB (A.K.A. CNP)
Chemistry and biology of cyanobacterial natural products
LAB NEWS
LEANDRO MATTOS SECURED A $133,588 USD GRANT ON GOOGLE CLOUD PLATFORM
November 20, 2023
Leandro has secured a research grant of $133,588 USD in credits on the Google Cloud Platform!
This grant, awarded in the "2ª edição Concurso de Projetos de Computação Avançada: Inteligência Artificial em Cloud," will empower our team to research deeper into unraveling Fatty Acyl-AMP Ligase substrates in Cyanobacteria using artificial intelligence.
This project aligns seamlessly with the BlueBio4Future mission to advance marine biotechnology research.
INCORPORATION, FATE, AND TURNOVER OF FREE FATTY ACIDS IN CYANOBACTERIA
April 13, 2023
Amaranta Kahn is the first author of a review published at FEMS Microbiology Reviews, which examines the metabolism of fatty acids in cyanobacteria and how it contributes to the biosynthesis of novel natural products.
LEÃO LAB RESEARCHERS WON SEED AND COB PROJECTS FROM CIIMAR!
April 4, 2023
Amaranta Kahn, Ana Vieira and Sandra Figueiredo, PhD researchers of Leão Lab were awarded CIIMAR Seed projects (5K€ each). Paulo Oliveira was awarded in the category CIIMAR Out of the Box project (10K€). The funding from these initiatives will enable the researchers to develop exploratory ideas in collaboration with other research teams at CIIMAR.
INCORPORATION AND MODIFICATION OF FATTY ACIDS IN CYANOBACTERIAL NATURAL PRODUCTS BIOSYNTHESIS
March 24, 2023
The Lab newest publication in Chemical Communications addresses the incorporation and modification of fatty acids by cyanobacteria, producing natural products through several biosynthetic pathways. A feature article covering the work developed by researchers of Leão Lab.
DISCOVERY AND HETEROLOGOUS EXPRESSION OF MICROGININS FROM MICROCYSTIS AERUGINOSA LEGE 91341
September 27, 2022
A new publication by our former Postdoctoral researcher Nádia Eusébio and the PhD student Raquel Castelo Branco was published in ACS Synthetic Biology. In this paper, DiPaC strategy was successfully employed to heterologously express the mic BGC from M. aeruginosa LEGE 91341 in Escherichia coli for the synthesis of microginins.
BIOSYNTHESIS OF THE UNUSUAL CARBON SKELETON OF NOCUOLIN A
August 31, 2022
Teresa's new paper published on ACS Chemical Biology provides ample biochemical evidence linking the putative nocuolin A biosynthetic gene cluster and identifies the source of all its carbon atoms, opening the door for further investigation of its peculiar biosynthetic chemistry.
RESEARCH
NATURAL PRODUCT DISCOVERY
A main focus in our lab is to discover new metabolites from cyanobacteria. These often combine potent bioactivity, intriguing structures and puzzling ecological roles. We use a variety of different methodologies to uncover the natural products chemistry of cyanobacteria.
NATURAL PRODUCT BIOSYNTHESIS
As we discover molecules with unprecedent structures, we often get intrigued by how they are put together. We are interested in the fascinating chemistry made possible by the enzymes that are hidden in bacterial genomes.
CYANOBACTERIAL CHEMICAL ECOLOGY
Over the years, hundreds of cyanobacterial secondary metabolites have been revealed to science, but we know very little about the roles they play in the natural setting. With the help of structural and biosynthetic knowledge, we seek to understand whether these compounds are involved in signalling, defense or other interactions with the surrounding environment.
PEOPLE
Current Group Members
PEDRO LEÃO
Principal Investigator
A Porto native, Pedro has a background in Biochemistry (BSc, U. Porto) and began to study cyanobacteria during his MSc studies at the same University. He then focused on the chemical ecology of cyanobacteria at CIIMAR under the supervision of Vitor Vasconcelos and obtained his PhD degree in 2010. He undertook postodoctoral training in natural products chemistry and biosynthesis at CIIMAR, Scripps Oceanography (Bill Gerwick) and Harvard University (Emily Balskus).
In 2015, Pedro was awarded an FCT Investigator competitive grant. In 2017, Pedro was the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant and the CNP team at CIIMAR (Leão Lab) was created.
LÍGIA SOUSA
Science and Technology Manager
Lígia has a scientific background in discovering new compounds of cyanobacterial origin and deciphering their mechanism of action using microtumor models.
She has joined the CNP team under the BlueBio4Future ERA Chair grant. She will work on project management, reporting and compliance, funding identification and dissemination activities.
BSc in Applied Biology (University of Minho), MSc in Marine Sciences and PhD in Biology (University of Porto)
KONRAD VIEHRIG
Junior Researcher
Konrad completed his PhD in the lab of Prof. Rolf Müller in Germany and has since gained post-doctoral experience in synthetic biology and natural product pathways in the labs of Prof. Jay Keasling in Denmark and Prof. Ben Shen in the United States. Throughout his career, he has worked with different microorganisms (Bakers Yeast, Myxobacteria, Actinomycetes) for natural product discovery, enzymology and pathway engineering.
LEANDRO PEREIRA
Junior Researcher
Leandro de Mattos Pereira is a PhD in Functional Genomics, Evolution, and Phylogenomics (Oswaldo Cruz Institute-Fiocruz, Brazil). He has worked as a postdoctoral researcher on genomic analysis, functional and comparative genomics annotation of bacteria and eukaryotes, identification of non-homologous isofunctional enzymes, metabolic pathway reconstruction, and systems biology.
MARIANE FAGUNDES
Junior Researcher
Mariane Fagundes joined the BlueBio4Future action team as Junior researcher in Bioprocesses and Metabolic Engineering. Mariane did her PhD in Federal University of Santa Maria, in Brazil in collaboration with Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Alimentación - Spain. Her main areas of expertise are the metabolic characterization of microalgal biomass, the use of green technologies to produce microalgae extracts and metabolomics.
BSc in Food Technology; MSc in Food and Science Technology; PhD in Food and Science Technology (Federal University of Santa Maria)
PAULO OLIVEIRA
Junior Researcher
Paulo Oliveira has a degree in Biology from the U.Porto (Portugal), and a PhD in Biological Sciences from Uppsala University (Sweden), where he did also a post-doc. After returning to Portugal, he joined the Bioengineering and Synthetic Microbiology group at IBMC/i3S, U.Porto. Presently, P.Oliveira is junior researcher at the Cyanobacterial Natural Products group, under the BlueBio4Future project, and Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences, U.Porto. He has dedicated his scientific career to the study of cyanobacteria. Lately, he has focused on secretions mechanisms, particularly in the form of extracellular vesicles, and has participated in Synthetic biology initiatives.
AMARANTA KAHN
Postdoctoral Researcher
Amaranta Kahn studies cyanobacterial fatty acid incorporation and its implication on aquatic ecology in cyanobacteria. She obtained her PhD degree (2019) in molecular biology and biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Ed Bayer) and in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Yannick Bomble). Her current research interests include molecular microbiology, biochemistry, metabolomic and lipidomic analysis. Amaranta is a surf lover.
MSc in molecular biology (Ecole Normal Superieur Paris, Paris-Sorbonne University) PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry (Weizmann Institute of Science, National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
ANA VIEIRA
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ana Vieira joined the CNP group in February 2018 as a laboratory manager. Ana is now a Postdoctoral Researcher and is interested in the discovery of new compounds with activity against the protozoa amoebae.
BSc and MSc in Microbiology (Superior School of Biotechnology,
Catholic University, Porto) and PhD in Medical Microbiology (Kingston University, London)
SANDRA FIGUEIREDO
Postdoctoral Researcher
Sandra Figueiredo is a post-doc researcher in CIIMAR, currently studying natural products from cyanobacteria. She obtained her degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2011 and PhD in the specialty of Pharmaceutical Chemistry from University of Coimbra and collaboration with the University of Barcelona, in 2017. Her current research interests include: natural product chemistry and biosynthesis, synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. Sandra is an animal lover and, in her leisure time, she enjoys hiking and exploring new places.
MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences; PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra)
ADRIANA REGO
PhD student
Adriana Rego is currenlty a PhD student working on the biogeography of natural roducts biosynthesis. Her research interests span microbiology, bioinformatics and natural products. During her free time she likes to prepare vegetarian recipes and to travel.
BSc - Biology and MSc - Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Porto
ANNE LIONG
PhD student
Anne finished her MSc studies in Biotechnology and joined the CNPs team in March 2020. In her research, she focuses on the targeted deorphanization of biosynthetic gene clusters from Cyanobacteria. During her free time, Anne is playing the piano, doing sports and planting vegetables and fruits in the garden.
BSc in Biotechnology (2017), FH Aachen
MSc in Molecular and Applied Biotechnology (2019), RWTH Aachen University
JOÃO REIS
PhD student
João has recently finished his MSc studies and is working on the characterisation of novel cyanobacterial enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of natural products.
BSc - Biochemistry & MSc in Cell & Molecular Biology (University of Porto)
JORGE MATINHA-CARDOSO
PhD student
Jorge is a bioinspired researcher with MSc in Bioengineering. He has hands-on experience in lab and large-scale cultivation of cyanobacteria, microbial genetic engineering techniques, and isolation and application of cyanobacterial-derived compounds in several contexts such as cosmetics, biomedicine and aquaculture. After working as a Research Fellow at i3S and later as a contracted researcher at Allmicroalgae company, he is currently developing his PhD project that aims to explore extracellular vesicles from cyanobacteria as a green and sustainable antigen-delivery platform for oral vaccination of fish. Outside the lab he loves sports, to explore the nature and write poetry.
KATHLEEN ABT
PhD Student
Kathleen joined the lab in March 2018 with a background in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry. Her current research focus is the discovery and structure elucidation of cyanobacterial modified fatty acids and the corresponding enzymatic machinery, a topic with potential pharmacological and biocatalysis application. Outside the lab, Kathleen enjoys outdoor activities, playing the guitar and learning new languages.
BSc and MSc in Molecular Life Sciences (University of Hamburg)
RAQUEL CASTELO-BRANCO
PhD Researcher
Raquel Castelo Branco has completed her Bsc degree in Genetics and Biotechnology in 2009 and Msc degree in Biotechnology of Health Science in 2011 by UTAD. She recently defenede her PhD (co-supervised by David Fewer at U. Helsinki), focused on the discovery RiPPs from cyanobacteria. Her main research interests include natural products biosynthesis, microbial genomics and biotechnology.
SARA FREITAS
Lab Manager - Research Technician
I have a BsC in Biology (2011), a MsC in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (2013), and a PhD in Biology (2023), from the Faculty of Sciences of Porto. My background is in natural products isolation/structure elucidation, metabolomics analysis, microalgea culture (cyanobacteria), and bioactivity screenings (anticancer and microbial). Currently, I'm also interested in the lab management and technician work regarding natural products isolation/structural elucidation.
BSc in Biology; MSc in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology and PhD in Biology (University of Porto)
DIANA SOUSA
Research scholarship
Diana has a degree in Biochemistry and an MSc in Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology, both from the Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto. She is currently a scholarship holder of the PROPELLER project
MARINE CUAU
PhD student
Marine has a background in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Poitiers, followed by a year of specialization in Blue Biotechnology from the e University of La Rochelle. She developed work towards the optimization of an acyl-acyl carrier protein synthetase inhibitor to study exogenous fatty acid incorporation in cyanobacteria. She recently (re)joined the CNP team under the Fatty Cyanos project and she has enrolled on PhD studies aiming to discover new cyanobacterial natural products
BSc and MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Poitiers, France), PharmD and M2 Blue Biotechnology (University of Poitiers and University of La Rochelle, France)
EUNICE FERREIRA
PhD Researcher
Eunice has a scientific background in developing synthetic biology tools and optimizing cyanobacterial chassis for the production of added-value compounds. She undertook bachelor training at CIIMAR, master training at i3S (University of Porto), postmaster training at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Japan), and doctoral training at i3S and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain). Eunice is finished her PhD and has joined the CNP team under the BlueBio4Future ERA Chair grant as research technician in microbial genetics and molecular biology.
BSc in Biology, MSc in Cell and Molecular Biology, and PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology Applied to Health Sciences (University of Porto).
FRANCISCO CAMACHO
MSc Scholarship
Francisco Camacho has a degree in Biochemistry and is presently enrolled in the Master’s in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology, from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. He will be working on his dissertation at CNP, focusing on the discovery of natural products linked to the interactions between cyanobacteria and amoebae.
FRANCISCO RAMOS
MSc Scholarship
Francisco Ramos has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and is currently enrolled in the Master’s in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto. As part of his dissertation, he will be collaborating with the CNP group, focusing on cyanobacteria engineering for the purpose of producing substances relevant to aquaculture.
INÊS GONÇALVES
MSc Scholarship
I’m currently a MSc student at the University of Algarve, enrolled in the Master in Marine Biology and I’m doing my master’s thesis research within the project “CyanoBOX – Beta-oxidation in cyanobacteria”. Throughout my research career, I have done multiple internships in Portugal, namely at Centre for Functional Ecology (University of Coimbra), Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MAREFoz), CCMAR (University of Algarve), and, most recently, in Israel (IOLR).
NUNO PINTO
MSc Scholarship
Nuno has a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Porto (FCUP/ICBAS) and is currently enrolled in the Master in Cell and Molecular Biology at FCUP. His dissertation will focus on the later stages of nocuolin A biosynthesis using different biochemical and molecular approaches. His work will be supported by a BYT+ scholarship.
MARCO PRETO
Research Assistant
Marco Preto joined CNP in November 2021, performing duties related to the laboratory management, equipment maintenance and natural products isolation/structure elucidation in support of CNP's research work.
Degree in Chemistry by Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto; Ph.D. in Sciences (Chemistry) by University of Minho.
MARIANA MOUTINHO
Research Assistant
Mariana Moutinho expertise focus on microorganisms cultivation in photobioreactors under a range of light and temperature settings, with the objective of evaluating the effects of culture conditions on various biochemical parameters, such as protein, carbohydrate, pigment and lipid content.
BSc in Biology and MSc in Applications in Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology (University of Porto)
Browse some of our recent published work
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
DISCOVERY AND HETEROLOGOUS EXPRESSION OF MICROGININS FROM MICROCYSTIS AERUGINOSA LEGE 91341
September 27, 2022
Nádia Eusébio, Raquel Castelo-Branco, Diana Sousa, Marco Preto, Paul D’Agostino, Tobias A. M. Gulder, Pedro N. Leão
ACS Syn Bio DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00389
BIOSYNTHESIS OF THE UNUSUAL CARBON SKELETON OF NOCUOLIN A
August 31, 2022
Teresa P. Martins, Nathaniel R. Glasser, Duncan J. Kountz, Paulo Oliveira, Emily P. Balskus, Pedro N. Leão
ACS Chem Biol DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.2c00464
STRUCTURE AND BIOSYNTHESIS OF DESMAMIDES A−C, LIPOGLYCOPEPTIDES FROM THE ENDOPHYTIC CYANOBACTERIUM DESMONOSTOC MUSCORUM LEGE 12446
July 6, 2022
Sara Freitas, Raquel Castelo-Branco, Arlette Wenzel-Storjohann, Vitor M. Vasconcelos, Deniz Tasdemir, Pedro N. Leão
J Nat Prod doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.2c00162
DISTRIBUTION AND DIVERSITY OF DIMETAL-CARBOXYLATE HALOGENASES IN CYANOBACTERIA
August 31, 2021
Nadia Eusebio, Adriana Rego, Nathaniel R. Glasser, Raquel Castelo-Branco, Emily P. Balskus, Pedro N. Leão
BMC Genomics doi: 10.1186/s12864-021-07939-x
DISCOVERY OF CYANOBACTERIAL NATURAL PRODUCTS CONTAINING FATTY ACID RESIDUES
February 17, 2021
Sandra A C Figueiredo, Marco Preto, Gabriela Moreira, Teresa P Martins, Kathleen Abt, André Melo, Vitor M Vasconcelos, Pedro N Leão
Angew Chem Int Ed. doi:10.1002/anie.202015105
BIOSYNTHESIS OF CHLORINATED LACTYLATES IN SPHAEROSPERMOPSIS SP. LEGE 00249
January 15, 2021
Kathleen Abt, Raquel Castelo-Branco, Pedro N. Leão
J Nat Prod. doi:10.1021/acs.jnatprod.0c00950
BRTB IS AN O-ALKYLATING ENZYME THAT GENERATES FATTY ACID-BARTOLOSIDE ESTERS
Mar 19, 2020
João P. A. Reis, Sandra A. C. Figueiredo, Maria Lígia Sousa, Pedro N. Leão
Nat Commun 11, 1458. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15302-z
WHERE WE ARE
Cyanobacterial Natural Products team
CIIMAR - University of Porto
Av. Gen. Norton de Matos, 4450 Matosinhos, Portugal
CIIMAR's website: www.ciimar.up.pt
Tel: +351 22 340 1800