@ CIIMAR, UNIVERSITY OF PORTO
(LEÃO LAB)
WELCOME TO THE LEAO LAB (A.K.A. CNP)
Chemistry and biology of cyanobacterial natural products
LAB NEWS
Phosphorylation of peptides by a kinase domain in cyanobactin pathways
November 21, 2025
Raquel Castelo-Branco is the first author of a Nature Communications paper revealing a macrocyclase with a built-in kinase domain that can phosphorylate peptides during RiPP biosynthesis. This kinase–macrocyclase module can be swapped into other pathways, offering an exciting route to expand post-translational modification diversity and advance peptide engineering.
Fatty acyl-AMP ligases in bacterial natural product biosynthesis
February 19, 2025
Anne Liong and Pedro N. Leão published a new review in Natural Product Reports highlighting the roles of FAALs in bacterial natural product pathways. The article summarizes FAAL discovery, distribution, structure, and function, and outlines current tools for identifying these enzymes in biosynthetic gene clusters.
Paulo Oliveira secures FCT Grant for exploring cyanobacterial biotechnology at the interface of Aquaculture
November 22, 2024
Paulo has secured an FCT research grant worth of 235K under the call “Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects in all Scientific Domains 2023”. Together with partners at i3S, Universidade do Porto, the project will develop effective and safe oral vaccines for the protection of European seabass, an important fish species in aquaculture. This will be achieved by implementing extracellular vesicles derived from cyanobacteria as antigen delivery vehicles.
ADRIANA REGO AND EUNICE FERREIRA JUST SECURED 50K EACH IN FCT EXPLORATORY PROJECTS
November 22, 2024
Adriana, focusing on bioinformatics, will explore the microbiome composition of cyanobacteria biofilms using advanced tools, a project aligned with BlueBio4Future research objectives. Eunice's CyanOrphan project will discover natural products from cyanobacterial orphan biosynthetic gene clusters, advancing synthetic biology within BlueBio4Future ERA CHAIR and CIIMAR.
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.
MARIANA GIRÃO
Science and Technology Manager
Mariana has a scientific background in marine microbial biotechnology and natural product discovery. She holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from ICBAS-UP, where she focused on bioprospecting marine-derived Actinobacteria to identify novel bioactive molecules with pharmaceutical and industrial potential. She has joined the CNP team under the BlueBio4Future ERA Chair grant and will work on project management, reporting and compliance, funding identification and dissemination activities.
BSc in Aquatic Sciences (ICBAS, 2016) · MSc in Cell and Molecular Biology (FCUP, 2018) · PhD in Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS, 2024), 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.
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 Junior Researcher and is interested in the discovery of new compounds (allelochemicals) with activity against microalgae and bloom-forming cyanobacteria.
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
Postdoctoral Researcher
Raquel is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher where she focuses on enzymatic chemistry and the discovery of novel cyanobacterial natural products. She obtained her PhD in Marine Biotechnology and Aquaculture in 2024 from the University of Porto, with research centered on the genome-guided discovery of cyanobacterial RiPPs, including collaborative work with the University of Helsinki. Her research combines microbial genomics, synthetic biology, and biocatalysis to expand the biosynthetic potential of cyanobacteria and enable the discovery of new bioactive molecules.
BSc in Genetics and Biotechnology (UTAD) and MSc in Biotechnology of Health Sciences (UTAD)
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 is a French PhD student whose research focuses on the discovery of new bioactive compounds from marine cyanobacteria. She conducts her PhD work between the Leão Lab at CIIMAR (Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Portugal) and the Gerwick Lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (University of California San Diego, USA).
She holds a PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences training) from the University of Poitiers (France), as well as a double MSc degree in Marine Biotechnology from the University of La Rochelle (France). Before starting her PhD, she worked as a research assistant at CIIMAR and completed research internships at IFREMER (French National Institute for Ocean Science, France) and at HEMARINA (marine biopharmaceutical company, France).
EUNICE FERREIRA
Junior Researcher
Eunice has a scientific background in synthetic biology of cyanobacteria. She did bachelor training at CIIMAR and master training at i3S (University of Porto). She was a Visiting Researcher at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Japan), and then conducted her doctoral studies at i3S and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain). Her PhD was focused on the development of cyanobacterial synthetic biology tools and optimization of cyanobacterial chassis to produce added-value compounds. Eunice has joined the CNP team in 2022, under the BlueBio4Future ERA Chair grant, as lab manager and research technician in microbial genetics and molecular biology. One year later, she got a Junior Researcher contract under the same grant and her scientific research has been focused on the discovery of new natural products by heterologous expression of cyanobacterial biosynthetic gene clusters. She recently secured a CEEC contract and is leading her first research project called CyanOrphan, both granted by FCT.
BSc in Biology (FCUP), MSc in Cell and Molecular Biology (FCUP), PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology Applied to Health Sciences (ICBAS), 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.
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).
CRISTINA SOUSA
MSc Scholarship
Cristina joined the CNP team to develop her master’s thesis, focusing on using different omics approaches to study fatty-acid incorporation in cyanobacteria. She is currently a research member of the CYANOBioMe project, which investigates cyanobacterial biofilm microbiome composition and chemical interactions.
BSc in Biochemistry (2023, FCUP/ICBAS); MSc in Biochemistry (2025, FCUP/ICBAS)
Browse some of our recent published work
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
PHOSPHORILATION OF PEPTIDES BY A KINASE DOMAIN IN CYANOBACTIN PATHWAYS
November 21, 2025
Raquel Castelo-Branco, Xiaodan Ouyang, João P. A. Reis, Sara Freitas, Diana Sousa, David P. Fewer & Pedro N. Leão
Nature Communications DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65184-2
FATTT ACYL-AMP LIGASES IN BACTERIAL NATURAL PRODUCT BIOSYNTHESIS
February 19, 2025
Anne Liong, Pedro N. Leão
NPR DOI: 10.1039/D4NP00073K
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
