Afonso Almeida

Background

About Afonso Almeida

Why do we have this number of lymphocytes? What is the role of continuous production, resource competition, subpopulation interactions or genetic variability? Which signals are involved and how do we modulate them in health and disease? These questions have been driving me throughout my career, from my PhD studies at the Pasteur Institute to my current projects in human immunology and in between, while working on T cell expansion for adoptive cellular immunotherapy or in cell intrinsic signaling aspects in lymphocyte leukemia. From November 2019, I am also participating in the formation of MDs and scientist, taking up a position as Assistant Professor at the FMUL. I obtained my PhD on T cell homeostasis at the Pasteur Institute in France (2002). I first designed a novel mouse model in order to determine the impact of thymic T cell export on T cell population sizes (2001) and then participated in regulatory T cell resurgence, demonstrating the role of IL2 in CD4+CD25+ Treg homeostasis. I moved to the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Switzerland, in order to establish my own line of research studying CD4/CD8 T cell interactions upon adoptive transfer into immunodeficient hosts. I later moved the Instituto de Medicina Molecular, in Lisbon, to study the completely novel role of neurotrophic factors in T cell development and function. Following a long-time interest in adapting fundamental immunology knowledge into therapy, I joined Lymphact helping to develop DOT-Cells® for Cancer cellular therapy. This successful experience led me to deepen my interest on cell intrinsic processes of homeostatic signaling, and thus joined in with Prof. João Barata at the IMM, in order to explore the IL7R signaling landscapes in health and cancer using novel mouse and human models. I recently joined Prof. Ana Espada Sousa Clinical Immunology unit at the IMM in order to apply all former knowledge and learn more, directly studying aspects of human T cell biology in health and disease. My general interests include all aspects of lymphocyte homeostatic processes, both environmental and cell-intrinsic and their application in translational research and on the exciting challenges being tackled on by immunotherapy. I am actively involved in teaching of master and PhD students, adding to my role of Assistant Professor in the formation of MDs and scientists at the FMUL.