“We are located at the Research Institute for Medicines at the Pharmacy Faculty of the Lisbon University and our research interests span over the interface of organic chemistry and biology.”
Chemistry offers unique possibilities to rationally manipulate biological processes and will most certainly play a major role in unravelling solutions for current unmet medical needs. Broadly our team is focusing on discovering innovative chemical methods that permit the construction of functional molecules, and on applying these technologies to the construction of therapeutic bioconjugates.
In detail, the discovery of new functional boron complexes, methods to functionalize proteins in a reversibly and/or orthogonal manner, and the assembly of stimuli responsive bioconjugates are the center of our current efforts.
Highlights
Diazaborines are a Versatile Platform to Develop ROS Responsive Antibody Drug Conjugates Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021 60, 25914-25921
Efficient Amino‐Sulfhydryl Stapling on Peptides and Proteins Using Bifunctional NHS‐Activated Acrylamides Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 10850
Modular Assembly of Reversible Multivalent Targeting Drug Conjugates Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 9346 –9350
Iminoboronates are Efficient Intermediates for Selective, Rapid and Reversible N-Terminal Cysteine Functionalisation Chem. Sci. 2016, 7, 5052
Iminoboronates: A New Strategy for Reversible Protein Modification J. Am. Chem. Soc.2012, 134, 10299
NEWS
Septembre 2023
Excellent news, Rafaela was awarded a FCT doctorate scholarship
July 2023
Congratulations Mariama for concluding your PhD with and excellent viva
January 2023
Welcome back João António and Fábio Santos now as Junior Researchers supported by FCT!
September 2020
Our PhD student, Maria José Silva, will stay for 6 months in the Gasser Group at the Chimie ParisTech. Enjoy your stay, have fun and work hard, Maria!
August 2020
The group has a new PhD candidate! Rita Padanha is going to start her PhD thesis in here in Gois Lab, sponsored by SPQ. Good luck Rita!
June 2020
Congratulations to João António and Silvia Baldo for defending theirs PhDs with great sucess! Hope a fruitful future for these two!
March 2020
FULL STOP at Gois Lab due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Paper-writing time, notebook-updating time and also, time to be safe.
October 2019
Congratulations to Roberto Russo for defending his PhD brilliantly!
September 2019
Congratulations to João António for being selected for a flash poster presentation at the EFMC-ASMC’19 in Athens. Good luck, João!
September 2019
The group has a new member! Bernardo comes from University of Leeds for a full year of great research! Welcome to the team, Bernardo!
RESEARCH
Functional Materials
Inspired
by
Nature’s repertoire of functional molecules, supramolecular chemistry evolved
into a powerful strategy to assemble functional systems that can self-sort,
self-heal, adapt, exchange, replicate or even transcribe. The exploitation of
this dynamic features is particularly appealing to control multifactorial
biological problems that require the interaction with multiple targets
and
stimuli-responsiveness to different chemical environments. However, these
superstructures
prepared based on noncovalent interactions involving ions and molecules in
complexes often display poor stability, particularly in solution, and they are
frequently difficult to characterize. Reversible covalent bonds, that depending on the
conditions can be as labile as non-covalent interactions or as permanent as
covalent bonds
have the
potential to enable the construction of more stable and well define
molecular
systems that may respond to specific disease associated stimuli.
In this emerging area of chemical biology we are exploring the reversible coordination chemistry of boron centers to assemble functional complexes with suitable properties to interfere with biological processes associated with cancer, neurodegeneration and protein misfolding.
Active areas of research include:
1. Discovery of new responsive molecules
2. Design of stimuli-responsive linkers for bioconjugates
3. Modular fluorophore platforms for bioimaging applications.
Protein Functionalization
The
chemical functionalization of proteins is a strategy of paramount importance to
study fundamental biological processes, though the marginal stability of
proteins and the overabundance of functionalities make this an overwhelming
challenge as these reactions need to be fast, selective, conducted with high
yields in aqueous media at low concentrations, physiological pH, temperature
and pressure.
Continuing a long standing interest in the design of new synthetic methodologies and on the use of water as a reaction media, we are now developing a series of methodologies to functionalize proteins with a particular focus on technologies that enable the reversible and/or orthogonal modification of the biomolecule.
Active areas of research include:
1. Development of reversible bioconjugation methods
2. Orthogonal and site-selective bioconjugation methods exploring Cys, Lys and N-terminal residues
3. Proximity driven bioconjugation methods
Targeted Therapy
In recent years, the use multifunctional constructs in which biomolecules like peptides and proteins, small vitamins or nucleic acids are endowed with the properties of specific payloads has emerged as leading therapeutics in oncology. Extensive studies in this area clearly suggest that the clinical success of bioconjugates is intimately related with the chemistries used to connect the functional components. Therefore, we are studying new formats of bioconjugates for drug delivery for oncology. The focus is to discover new bioconjugation methods and linker technologies that may be used to generate targeting drug conjugates with more well-defined structures and with mechanisms that trigger a therapeutic action as a direct response to the disease chemical environment.
